Nice one.

First off as haven't done so yet, congrats on a good and deserved win and good look for the rest of the season certainly showed god signs on Friday!

On the other hand Betts has a bit of a point. If you read the article / see interview on SKY he does say our discipline let us down once you win the ruck. I didn't go away thinking that the ref altered the game at all but I did feel the ruck area was a bit inconsistent and made it tough for us to get a roll on. That's a credit to your defence btw as you all know your push the ref to his limits though there were a few times I felt Thaeler was inconsistent there.

Ben Cross was outstanding until the final stages when yes his discipline cost us which was annoying as he was the senior player out there with Clarke off the pitch.

He's a ref what do you expect



Don't agree about B Cross at all, not seen anything of him at Leeds or Wigan that tells me any different, but we all see it different ways.

I don't blame Betts for having a whinge, all the other coaches do it.

What I thought we did do was control the ruck way better than your guys - that means three men in, peel off one by one on the ref's call and as a result, the ruck is slowed down and the defence has time to set; we all have our own views about that as a tactic, but that's how the game is played right now at SL level. I don't think Betts does himself or the club any favours by whining about the ref after your first game back in SL by the way.

As for Cross - I couldn't disagree more; he's a useless lump with all the gear and no idea - he will continue to do what he did to you last night for the remainder of the season.

More whiney crap from Wheezy www1.skysports.com/rugby-league/ ... ld-man-up- Don't want artificial crap at NM. Anyway IIRC there were some widnes players complaining as well as Fox and Kirmond? What a tool, can't stand him.

More whiney crap from Wheezy www1.skysports.com/rugby-league/ ... ld-man-up- Don't want artificial crap at NM. Anyway IIRC there were some widnes players complaining as well as Fox and Kirmond? What a tool, can't stand him.

There were a couple of the Widnes lads complaining as well, but they seemed to be "censored" !

Mathers not been censored, so I wonder if he has the clubs unofficial blessing on this, I hope so

Apart from his discipline, I actually thought Cross had a good game. This won't go down well with many, but I reckon we'd have a more formidable pack with in it.

As for Thaler, I reckon he's one of the better ones and reffed it well on Friday. I did think we were fortunate with Raleigh's try, but that was down to the video referee.

i think i agree with Betts re Mathers tbh and i think the issue with their pitch is being blown out of all proportion

Widnes new 1st team kit p.twimg.com/AlD9sbECEAE7cQM.jpg:large

Widnes new 1st team kit p.twimg.com/AlD9sbECEAE7cQM.jpg:large

I'd agree about Cross. He was good but should have been better in discipline terms. It was hardly a big deal that he blew up about. There were plenty of high shots that went unpunished so a penalty there was not such a terrible thing.
I thought the whole Widnes pack were particularly big compared to us and in the first 10-20 really dominated and made a lot of yards as well as crunching in the tackle. Unfortunately I also thought Agar's game plan worked very well for this situation.
The likes of Southern and Washbrook tackled everything early on and even though we were being bashed about your guys didn't take advantage.
Once your guys ran out of steam without racking up the points it allowed us to take control.
You'll beat plenty of team sthis year once you get your half backs sorted.

Part of Cross's problem is having played for Leeds and then Wigan he is not used to getting decisions given against him.
Like it or not, the bigger teams tend to get the 50/50 calls and he better get his head round that or he'll spend a lot of time this season being penalised or binned.