Catalans 40 Salford 40!! Great defence... Salford were 22-0 up! Should be an interesting game next week. When Catalans were coming back into the game, Salford players looked gone but found a way to stop the momentum and come back into it. In the end despite a dodgy Bentham penalty to tie the scores, a draw was probably a fair result.

The draw may be "a fair result" but, he made the wrong call, it should be back to Escare to ptb.

That poor decision could come back to haunt us !!

Refs have gone backwards this year. Not good in a year when we 're introduce relegation and promotion.

We'll need to handle Patterson better than the French did

Salford looked good with ball in hand but, suspect in defence.

It could be another try fest next week !

Every game seems to be down to a ref's poor call,something must be done.Is it down to few ref's in the game?so they get away with poor standards?at the moment they are a laughing stock and an embarrassment to the game.

And these are full time professionals are they not

I think I might have said this a few times.......these blokes who are officiating would never or have been any form of any elite athlete. They are just the blokes who were the last to be picked when it came to picking sides.
This game is played at an electrifying speed that in all honesty we can't imagine. Lots of us have of course played team sports but this level is really far beyond our comprehension.
Just watching Hicks run is funny enough - feet splayed, waddling gait and miles off the the slowest player on the pitch, but apart from that these referees need the same visual awareness, instinctive decision making and acute peripheral vision that the players have got - and thats it they aint got it.
The RFL MUST make some sort of effort to develop and encourage former professionals or young lads who haven't quite made the grade to think about taking the whistle up - blokes who have played and understand the game....and who are not intimidated by tough hard men and these refs clearly are.

Spot on Fergus

Perhaps it's time for some of the ref's assessments to be made public.
Obviously, we could not have a situation where they are publicly hung out to dry but, occasionally an admission of an error
would do no harm at all, especially when is has a direct effect on the result.

Seems a bit contradictory this post! these youngsters' who you are in effect calling them the dregs (for the want of a better expression) only get picked to make up the sides simply because they are not good enough, but then later in your post you are openly encouraging these same young lads' who in your words haven't quite made it, to take up the whistle. Maybe it's because these young lads realise that they don't quite have what it takes to be an elite athlete, and in an attempt to stay involved in the game they love turn to the whistle.
Robert Hicks is far from a favourite of mine too, but as funny as he might look when running to say that he cannot keep up with the slowest player on the field is perhaps somewhat exaggerated to suit your point.
Is there any wonder there is a shortage of officials' when as you allude to our refs being surrounded by 4 or 5 tough hard men trying to intimidate you, surely unless your really dedicated there must be an easier way to earn your money, just a thought on that matter maybe it would help if the RFL supported them more by giving out harsher penalties for these intimidatery tactics.

You missed the point. The lads in the academies/under 19s/ those that have injuries that finish promising careers - these are the ones that don't quite make the grade and the ones that we should be developing into high quality referees. The ones that 'don't get picked' are the ones that were left standing in the muddy puddle during pe lessons !!

Or only got a game cos they had a ball

What about the young players who do not have career finishing injuries, but are deemed not good enough to make the grade?, like the full time one's that are now in charge of SL, who as a rule on the day only upset the losing fans but are good refs' according to the winning team fans', until it's their turn to to lose and blame the ref, but human nature being what it is it won't change.
It would though be interesting to know how you would go about developing an ex elite athlete or an academy player whose career was ended into a high quality referee, good luck with that nobody seems to have mastered that yet, not according to the fans' anyway.