Just trying to get this straight.

Six minutes into today's game, Pats flying in at the corner when he gets put into touch by a what?

1. Great tackle.

2. Shoulder charge.

When is a tackle a shoulder charge and vice versa.

The defender today made no attempt to hold onto Paddy so does that not then become a shoulder charge?

I understand that this rule aims to protect players and iI fully support that.

I just think this rule will become to subjective and un referee able.

I'm pretty sure O'loughlin put one in during the first half too...

do you think Hicks could have worked that out today

bloody awful for both sides

he couldnt even see a blatent knock on straight in front of his eyes, so doubt he would have seen if someone had pulled off a cracking tackle that albeit could be considered foul play under the new rules

Hicks was truly appalling today. Reffed it like we'd come to see him and not the 26 bit part players on the park from Wigan and London. Equally bad for both teams, and let down by 2 equally poor touch judges.
Sam may be petulant, but when a player knows the rules better than the ref, you can understand how they get frustrated.

Lockers also looked like he put in an armless tackle attempt as well, so that was 1 a piece. Both teams can feel equally upset by that whistle-a-thon today.

He had no authority at all, and you could see the players had no respect. sending Sam off for 10 was right, but it looks like Hick made a mistake. No doubt we will get clarification later in the week

What about the penalty against Sam for being offside from a kick, when it was him who kicked the ball in the first place??

in defence of the refs i sit in the East stand and half the fans dont know all the rules

Hicks did correctly officiate the tap 20 restarts today. its not his fault the rules have changed.

It will be the same with the shoulder charge. There will be a legitimate (under old rules) big hit which everyone loves, and someone will either end up in the bin or off for it

I'll bite
My mate was 1 of the TJs today, I reckon 50/50 on a potential forward pass 1st half for Londons opening try.
Not sure what else there was controversial in his performance and he picked up the knock on 2nd half that hicks missed and gave the head and feed decision when Sam put his foot in touch and knocked ball into touch.

OK. In a game when the ref was peeping like a british rail guard, the TJs were impressively silent. I cant remember a single forward pass given and lets face it, Micky Mac thinks less than a foot in front in OK and London were equally as bad. The knock on that was given was called by 3,000 Wiganers in the stand before the TJ whispered into his mic.
If the game is going to run as an exercise in pedantry, then lets be consistent and call forward passes as well.
Neither TJ appeared to add any input into the 2 potential shoulder charges or the late hit on Mark Smith.
like I said, lets have it either one way of the other, but for the ref to have a whistle party and the TJs to lose their voices is inconsistent.
Nothing personal

But..... He blatantly missed the same decision when Sam's foot was in touch over the goal-line.

PLUS - The TJ gave the decision for the one on the sideline. The in-goal judge had no clue about that rule either, so between him and Hicks, Sam talked himself into 10 minutes, whilst attempting to "teach" them their own rules.

Sam's offside - He was the f***ing kicker.

Head shots on Charnley, all day long. Damn near every time he carried the ball within arm-swinging distance of a London player.

Those are just the blatant ones that I remember.

So yes, he got the 2 quick-tap decisions right, but got a whole lot WRONG (for both teams).

I was talking about the touch judge and his performance not Hicks.

I only commented that hicks got the restarts right

Lockers got away with one in the first half.

50% rating for Hicks 2 weeks on the trot in League Express. Hopefully such poor performances will result in him reffing the lower leagues for a couple of weeks.