Who was refereeing last night > Child or Ganson? It was poor, Child always tries to make a name for himself, he's even worse when he's a linesman- hes always runs on the pitch waving his flag against Wigan - he cant wait to do it. Watching Silverwood now in the catalan game now and his performance is even worse. What has happened to the refereeing standard? I'm shocked at Silverwood but I expect it from Child & Ganson

The video ref was reffing the game , absolutely no doubt, also agree re Silverwood , said on radio the other week , standard of refs and touchies is at an all time low, no competition for places, and rely on video ref all the time, so get lazy and are not in position.
Needs a change at the top, i.e. Mr Cummins

Not scrutinised the incident frame by frame but from watching it on the telly, but the ball had long gone so maybe thats why it was red in comparison to Perry's (which was wrong) and some of the tackles Morley is famous for. Also there are some calls on here for a yellow, Can someone clarify when a yellow can be given? I seem to recall that it can't be used for deliberate foul play (which in the officials opinion, and for what its worth mine, it was).

I thought so; you see the problem is it seems you have never listened TO ANYONE but yourself.

Hopefully this will be a wake up call hes turned into a bit of a sh*thouse since Wane came in and I dont mean the good type Im talking like Newton was dirty hes not done anything as bad yet but hes getting there.

I might be the first to say this but

Honestly, it was a red card but only just.

Its a Wigan v Saints game. Supposedly the biggest most brutal derby in world RL.

So what if one of our players starts the ruff stuff?. You take the risk when you chuck a late one like that but its not the end of the world.

it wasn't even that bad a challenge. Some people need to get of there soapboxes.

Part of MM's game to play play it close to the wire, sometimes he is going to go a bit over the top. whoop de woo, he got a red.

There were much worse things happening all the time (including on Friday night). Kelvin Skerrett, Les Boyd, Sonny Nickle, Barrie Mac, Gordon Tallis, Adrian Morley, Kurt Sorenson, Alex Murphy, Gaz Hock, Bobbie Goulding, Noel Cleal, Des Drumond Tez Newton, Andy Greg etc etc etc all had a bit of this in them and the majority (Nickle obviously excluded) are held in legendary status as hard men of the game.

Dont give me any rubbish about any of the above playing hard but fair. ALL of them had a nasty streak and were more than capable of chinning someone of the ball.

Rugby is intimidation and there are players who enjoy rattling and hurting an opponent both legally and illegally.

If they go to far, they miss a game or two. It is not the end of the world.

Having watched it a few times again, definite sending off but only because it was reckless. The initial contact was on the shoulder so it wasn't a pre-meditated attack at all.

1 game ban.

A sending off is better than an injury. At least he'll come back fit as a fiddle.

That's most definitely the glass half full argument!

Any videos anywhere of it yet?
I have seen it but have family without Sky who still haven't seen it.

It certainly is.... lol... Love it!!

Thank you. One of the few sensible posts on this ridiculous thread.

Personally I think it was a red card. But then many offences would be a red card if the rules were actually enforced correctly. Dropping an elbow onto the head of an already tackled player on the floor is at least as dangerous and cowardly as MM's late and high shot to the head of a standing player.

As for the rules, I'm not sure where in the Laws it allows a referee to be given instructions through his earpiece on what punishment to give (many people were asking who sent him off, the ref on the pitch or the one in the stands) nor where in the Laws it allows a referee to view TV footage of the incident on the screen (as he appeared to on Friday night before dismissing MM).

The standard of officiating in the SL this season has been poor. What is worse is that Wigan players and MM in particular seem to be being held to a stricter interpretation and application of the rules than those of other clubs. Many people around me were expressing the view that things are now out of hand. The different approach taken in the CC Final was being widely compared to that taken with MM.

When you add to this the apparent intervention of the fourth official and what seemed to be viewing of the TV footage by the referee, there is clearly an issue here and Wigan should call for an explanation from the RL.

One final point is that it would be nice if for once a significant proportion of Wigan fans could manage not to jump on the bandwagon of Wigan player bashing. Yes MM has been stupid on occasion this season but the lynch mob that is forming need to calm down.

Given he's lost us two games this season and not a single player in the whole of the competition has given away more penalties, I'd say he's got off pretty lightly. As my mate said to me today, he's Marmite - it's one extreme or the other with him, he either great or a complete and utter liability. Unfortunately coming into the business end of the season and there are far too many of the latter.

At the moment I don't trust him not to do it again in the play-offs or Grand Final so hope the ban is long enough to take him out of the equation.

He has helped us to win a few though.

I ain't that bothered. He has looked frazzled recently and 1 or two games rest will do him no harm. Now whilst i would be massively peed off if he received another red in any of our remaining games, i would much prefer to have him in the team.

Agreed he has helped us to win games, but not singlehanded in the way he has singlehandedly lost us two games. That's the most galling thing, I can accept players making playing errors that might cost us games, but his indiscipline has cost us two games.

In the tight play-off games the team that loses their discipline is more than likely going to lose the game and two loose cannons in McIlorum and Hock is an accident I'm hoping isn't going to happen.