Well thats strange, seeing as he went off 25-30 minutes into the game..

Sure!
It is actually the first time for the Catalans to have a French ref. 9 times out of 10 the ref will be English, it is just fair to have a French ref in the competition and sometimes he will ref the Catalans.
I am sure Alibert is a professional in his decisions, and anyway he knows his decisions will be watched carefully after this match. For the Catalans Cup match against Bradford, he gave the first Bradford try as video ref while the BBC commentators were both thinking it was not a try.

I was supporting the frenchies last night (well I am French) at the ground and I agree with those here saying that the problem was the Quins' mistakes. I did not find the Catalans overwhelmingly impressive. They were consistent and solid, and they had a very good start of the second half. But they definitely benefited largely from Quins mistakes which led to easy tries for Catalans, and which ended several attacking phase from the Quins few meters from the try line. The Quins looked good at the start of the game (I would have bet on them before the first French try).

Not to be too harsh with the Quins, perhaps attacking mistakes were favoured by the tough Cats defense. You must take into account that they were on the momentum of their heroic victory against Bradford in Cup (catching back from 0-26 to win 40-38 ). I think they came here to win, and they were pumped up, you could see that in the effort they made in defense.

Regarding the crowd, there was a good ambiance, but to increase attendance, prices should be lower IMO. 20-25 quids plus a 8 quids ticket from Waterloo is too much for the present standard of performance. The team should lower the prices to increase attendance, even more when the results are not appealing for casual supporters.

what he said

line speed was poor, and we let them play the ball too fast - those 2 things combined = momentum to Cats; add in terrible ball retention and we had no chance... the fact we only lost 24-28 is an indication of how weak Cats are at the moment

2 relatively straightforward SL points thrown away

Not at all. It was 12-28 with 4 minutes left on the (visible) clock. At this point, everybody thought it was over. For sure you can understand that Cats can release the pressure, and there was a try scored at that time by the Quins, this should have been it. The clock showed 00:00 and the players were waiting the end. The Cats put the ball in touch on purpose thinking it was the end. But the game went on for 4 minutes after the clock stopped! This situation was very confusing, and the last try was not representative of the match. The French coach had to go to the assistant ref for the Hooter to be blown, what the heck?? Have you seen 4 minutes of additional time justified

This was really a poor organisation last night. Apparently nobody knew on the pitch when the match was going to finish exactly.


Does anybody has any idea about what happened?

There is no additional time in RL. The time keepers clock stops when the ref puts his 2 hands above his head & it restarts when he waves one hand above his head. Ie when the defending team form a scrum quickly he stops it and when the ball is fed in he starts it.

The clock on the scoreboard is a running clock that never stops. Here lies the problem. For me they should turn it off.

I find myself agreeing with Mr. Lister. Alibert wasn't the worst refereeing performance this season.

It was a shockingly awful performance by us though. Bosc was fantastic for them, but to be honest, they didn't have to do all that much because we kept dropping ball (never seen so much dropped ball on a dry day) and making ridiculous errors (Will Sharp's comedy moment). It needed a really big opening 10 mins to the second half from us to get the momentum shifted. But having to take at least 4 GLDO's in the opening of the half completely ruined any realistic hope of winning.

Any idea why the professional foul in the first half wasn't yellow carded?

Absolutely no idea! If that was a Quins player the yellow would have been out before the referee could say 'Allez Les Cats'

agree that was an error by Mr alibert
It was a pro foul, which should have been 10 mins in the bin
hey ho thats life

as for the discussion regarding the clock! pah sure all the players are aware, and same as always play to the whistle
and the cats coach had to go and ask for the hooter to be blown? what the bloody hell has it got to do with him! time keepers are exactly that, they stop and start the clock as instructed by the ref
How can they complain they bloody beat us last year AFTER THE HOOTER

I think it would be less confusing if the scoreboard clock counted upwads, then if it goes over 40:00 at least people can guess how much over it's likely to run. When it gets to 0:00 and then nothing that's just stupid.

ie. Les Catalans won the ruck.

Seems that today your wish was granted! Very noticeable that all clocks were switched off for the HKR game. Are we to assume that this will now be the same for the remainder of the season?