No that ref was Saballyes or summat like that. I’m sure Rascagneres reffed the Aussie test matches in 1982

John Holdsworth was a great and fair Referee and it was always a pleasure to watch him in charge of a game.

I dont mind Thaler, but Hicks is a pedant.

I always thought Steve Presley to be fair and unbiased. (cue Elvis cracks

)

Karl Kirkpatrick and Russell Smith for me (at least until the Terry O'Connor swan-dive-and-knock-on-over-the-line against Saints that he gave, after which Smith went to the screen for EVERY single try).

Worst HAD to be Alibert for me. I had the distinct displeasure of listening to Ref's comms at the games and every single Alibert game, he was being coached from the sidelines.
Just utter ineptitude.

I used to like John holdsworth especially when skerret was up against sonny Nichol
Remember the cc cup replay at Knowsley road in which kelvin and sonny started scrapping just after kickoff
Holdsworth went to skerret and yelled you are off and held up the wrong card.he had meant to use red but instead pulled out and held up a yellow so kelvin only got ten minutes And best about it was he had to go with it as it was live on bbc due to England football being abandoned on the same night
Was an enjoyable night with a good result against the rabble from Merseyside

yeah that was the trouble in Ireland wasnt it?, I remember just getting in from training at night and seeing the news but watching wigan so winner

I've been watching rugby since I was 8 (so 98) and I can't remember a single ref I thought was good. The vast majority come over like arrogant self-important people, to be honest. Maybe Ian Smith was alright.

I've been watching since 1959 and I'm really hard pushed to name a consistently good ref. Now bear in mind, it's got to be one of the hardest jobs in the world, reffing a RL game . You've got to have your eyes everywhere. Also, bear in mind 'touch judges' have often been rather lacking in supporting these refs too.

All that being said. Even the likes of 'Sgt Major' Eric Clay, who was a pompous ref IMHO and who often couldn't keep up with play, but who is lauded as being a 'great ref' by the pundits was not very good. A character yes. A good ref no. Kirkpatrick was also a character.

One ref who does stand out for me, was that really biased Australian ref who GB complained about - was it Bill Harrigan IIRC ? Australia didn't need any help on the field, but Harrigan often made sure when he was around.

"Hollywood Bill"

Russell Smith bent over for the Aussies on more than one occasion , and ended up reffing , and living over there .

A lot of the uk refs seem to give the benefit of the doubt to NRL teams. It’s either sucking up to big brother or some ill judged effort to be deemed impartial