Not correct Wigan as a team were a Man light and should have been same for Saints. Lance aint no playmaker and wasnt a big loss to Saints.

I think you need to go and have a look at what the Saints fans have been saying about Hohaia all season (and previous seasons for that matter!) before you start spouting the 'losing their only recognised halfback' mantra. I can't think of a single fan who regards him as a half and clearly neither does the club given they have just gone out and signed Burns. That's before we get into the times he's been available and they've preferred to play other non specialist options such as Wilkins and Wellens ahead of him!

Can anybody tell me who the 2 video refs were on Saturday?
Also, I've not seen a replay so I only have a foggy recollection of the review of the incident, was the full incident looked at from start to finish by the refs or was it just the punch from Flower?

I have refrained from posting on any of the topics recently as I am working in Austria and only saw the game in a bar without any sound ( a blessing in disguise?!). Perhaps some of you could enlighten me on several incidents which were not clear from just seeing the game on TV:

Did Pettybourne actually knock on when Wellens very demonstratively hinted he had - and which led to a scrum from which Saints scored their crucial first try? Sky normally show an incident like this in the numerous replays after a try has been scored but I do not recall seeing anything ( and of course I couldn't hear what Eddie and Stevo were saying). It is these 50/50 decisions which can be crucial to the outcome to a tight game - possession in your opponent's 22 gifted to a team.

Charnley was penalised when chasing a kick in the Saints 22 and from the resulting penalty Saints were marched upfield and scored their final try. Hicks gave that decision and there may have been contact, but there didn't seem much interference from Charnley - certainly nothing worse that what invariably happens when 2 are chasing for the ball. And Charnley was running forward whereas the Saints winger was running backwards and may have been deemed to have been blocking/obstructing Charnley by other officials. Again, I may be wrong as I only saw it once on TV.

Whenever a high kick went up, the decision always seemed to be a Wigan knock on ( Bowen was harshly penalised on the Wigan line in the second half from what I could see) or a penalty to Saints. Crucial 50/50 decisions as stated above. The only "wrong decision" in Wigan's favour was a forward pass to Burgess in the second half which was not given.

Bentham has seemed to favour opposing teams on these 50/50 calls in the last few weeks from what I have seen on Wigan TV/Sky - Wigan beat Warrington despite him ( the knock on for the first Wire try when he could have gone to the video ref - it was in the same play the ball incident from which the try was scored) but his sheer refusal to go the video ref when there was a significant doubt beggared belief. And his failure to send Wood off but sin bin both him and Pettybourne! I remember contributing to a topic on here several years ago about Wigan's poor win statistics when Bentham was the referee ( it was approx. 30%) when with all the other referees it was between 60 and 90%. He seemed to improve after that, but certainly he has lapsed into his old bad habits recently.

Flower had to go - maybe LH should have been sent off as well. The nauseating comments from certain Wire fans on here when Westwood was equally guilty of thuggery against Green last year (but his was totally unprovoked unlike Flower's) also beggar belief.

Bentham refereed our 2011 Cup Final v Leeds and was dreadful. We won that in spite of him.
Trouble was that Silverwood ruled himself out with his terrbile game in the Saints v Catalans fixture. That left only Mr Clueless himself.

Widely regarded as the most controversial Challenge Cup final refereeing performance, in Wigan's favour of course, since 2003 and you claim "Wigan won in spite of him". The mass delusion on this thread and others by Wigan fans is something to behold.

Still as a Rhino's fan a sending off for foul play would be somewhat of a novelty factor to you ..... Peacocks unpunished thuggery being a classic example

Pretty much single match report from the 2011 final notes the favourable decisions in Wigan's favour which, ultimately decided the outcome. It's a long time ago but there's no need to re-write history to support this flawed 'Bentham has it in for Wigan' argument.

On Saturday he made a few errors in a generally good performance. But there was just as much he could additionally have penalised Wigan for and didn't than the other way.

The delusion is by Leeds fans.
Why on earth would Leeds have won that Final more than any other Final which they have lost against us in RL's history.
Leeds lose to Wigan in Finals, that's what Leeds do!
I'd have thought they'd have got used to it by now!

As for Bentham and last Saturday, he should have sent Hohaia off and didn't, just as he should have sent Paul Wood off in round 27 and didn't.
Both those sendings off would have benfitted Wigan, he failed to make the correct decision in both games.

Its not Bentham I'm having a go at, to be fair he did well and Wigan made 80 mins of errors in defence and attack. I would like to know who the 2 video refs were who seem to hurry through the big decision, was it Ganson & Thaler?

Smith and Thaler.

I'm amazed nobody seems to see through his very simple strategy: Ignore foul play against Wigan players and eventually one of them will react, job- done.
All very well saying let the ref' deal with it, what do you do if he does'nt. He knows exactly what he is doing.