Was Bateman's comments overheard? As captain surely he is (out of the 17 players in the team) the one who has most justification to speak to an official?

Ground another win out, yes it's not pretty at the moment but lets face it, tomorrow night, Saints, Leeds, Widnes and Warrington would kill for a win like that.
Glass half full night tonight.

Must have been as the subject of discussion was reported. Sky lot made a big deal of it- even clarkey!

Typical of that lot, an exciting Thursday night match which went down to the final minute and the SKY lot search for the negatives. Always the same, especially Stevo. Wouldn't happen in televised RU as they don't talk down their sport.

Good job the Wigan fans turned out tonight and there was no red and blue "chairs" visible eh

We appreciate you've got to grab what straws you can.

Double what huddersfield would get on a Thursday night even when we take 6/7/8 times they brought tonight.

As captain Bateman has the right to talk to the ref, he 'questioned' the ruck speed which he is allowed to do. Bateman is very new to the role, so SW prompted him to talk to the ref-no more too it.

Sky clearly wanted a talking point, so they added focus to the Batman/Ref chat, and it worked, it became a talking point under the spotlight. Captains asking refs about ruck speed etc happens every game. Only last week I heard Rob Burrow talking to the ref saying "We just want to get our fair share" when he felt Leeds should have been awarded a pen v Hull. 'Get your fair share'? so pens are now equally awarded in a game? I thought pen were awarded when a team broke the rules. This could have been a talking point IF sky focus on it.
Similarly James Graham in the NRL having a go at the ref for 'coaching' the opposition.

All part of the game, it's up to the ref to remain focused and be professional. Poor show from Paul Anderson, I guess the ref has screwed Huddersfield on a number of occasions this season looking at their position.

That's a very generous interpretation of what happened. If John Bateman is experienced enough to be captain then he's experienced enough to talk to the referee when he sees fit. Fact of it is that Wane wanted to get in the refs ear but is not allowed by the rules, so instead sent Bateman back to do it on his behest. Nothing against the rules, certainly against the spirit of them though and let's not pretend Bateman was anything more than a puppet.


Normally during the course of play, normally not when a player has left the pitch at half time and come back on at the behest of his coach - I'm not sure I've ever seen that before.



Yes, that's exactly what he meant when he said fair share. He didn't mean equal treatment, he meant please give us penalties we don't deserve. He wasn't referring to the fact that he's just had his bell rung by a guy who was ten yards offside (so both serious foul play and a professional foul) and the yellow card it deserved hadn't been issued, he was asking Cobb to fabricate stuff. It wasn't a talking point because there was nothing to talk about - that was a perfectly standard player-ref exchange. Last nights was not. That is why they talked about it.

I could take a guess. Is it because you're a bell end?

Clever.

Wigan win....... CHEATING BARSTEWARDS
Wigan lose...... Serves you right you cheating barstewards...

Is this seriously being offered as evidence of something untoward?

I mean, did you manage to keep a straight face when you typed that?

So we're in agreement then? Good good.

Come on so Danny Brough does not bend the refs ear errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr