I ain't a wigan fan but how can a bloke who lives in st helens who's son is season ticket holder at saints be video ref today is there not enough refs available

My Dad used to be a ref in north west counties leagues when Ganson was coming through. Ganson told my Dad he hates Wigan and if he ever to to ref them he would make sure every 50/50 decision went against them. I think he's an honourable man cuz he sure kept his word today! Wembley here we come!!

Agree with all the above. Ganson does seem to be biased aginst Wigan and very rarely if ever gives Wigan the benefit of the doubt in any 50/50 call in close or important games.

I mentioned this to my daughter before Saturday's game and was again proved right - it would have been interesting to see the decision he would have made if Saints had "scored" a similar try with a suspicion of obstruction. He gave them a couple of very dubious tries last season (one shocker against Salford iirc). Both calls when the ball went dead went Saints way

It should not be forgotten that Ganson was the ref when Wigan lost both CC semi - finals in 2007 and 2009. True, we underperformed in both, but particularly against Catalans he missed a blatant knock on from them in the first couple of minutes and then caned us for penalties which gave Catalans the momentum to dominate the game early doors. and thus set the all imporatnt pattern to a game. He was also the ref when Wigan lost play off games against Leeds in 2007 and 2008 and against Saints in 2009 ( remember Longy dragging Joel into touch when the tackle was completed a couple of minutes before the end of the game?) and he was the VR when Wigan lost against Leeds in the CC last year. He made a "howler" just before half time when he chose to ignore Lee Smith's initial knock on and gave Leeds the scrum. Instead of a Wigan attacking scrum 10 metres out, Leeds got the head and feed and then went upfield to get an equalising penalty.

Without seeming to be paranoid is there a pattern emerging....?!

True, Wigan won against Hull and Castleford this season but were made to struggle in both games. Guess who was the ref?!

I'm just praying he isn't involved in any way at Wembley...!

The fact remains a Saints member should never be allowed to officiate in any way in a Saints game - there was no need at all for this as only 2 games were played last weekend. The fault thus lies ultimately with Stuart Cummings.

Yeah 33p per mile

I've spoken to Gans many times and he makes it clear that he hates Wigan

I firmly believe that you should not ref or video ref a team which you support. With the best will in the world Ganson will be biased, either towards St Helens as he supports them or against them to try and proove he is not biased. Either way it's not fair on one team. No ref should ever be put in that position. The blame can only be directed at his boss.

As for the obstruction no try, it was absolutly the correct call. The video ref seems to look at 2 things. Firstly did the contact prevent the defender from having the chance to make a tackle, ie if the ball was spread further wide thus it had no effect on the play it is not normally given. Secondly who's fault was the contact. If the dummy runner is running into a hole and the defender was fooled and moves into the attacker then it is not obstruction. If the attacker runs into the defender then it is. The latter was the case on Saturday.