Absolutely right. The salary cap has nothing to do with holding down at the play-the-ball, nor does it have anything to do with the referee's inability to stamp this out and make for a free-flowing game. Best team still won, though, regardless...

There terrible for doing it, really spoil the game

Spot on. Thaler was bad both ways to the point of penalising each team for offences he let the other repeatedly get away with. To the poster who questioned the use of a tactic Noble had previousy complained about. Well, seeing as he has had words with Cummings on several occassions this season regarding this with no effect, he'd be daft not to use the fact that refs are obviously being instructed to be lenient in this area wouldn't he? Unfortunately for Wigan, Thaler decided today was the day to start penalising it despite not doing so on numerous other occassions. Go figure?!? I think Justin Morgan probably summed this guy up best....

Look at the bigger picture.

It was a very low quality game.

I would reccomend those who rate our competition to invest in Setanta and watch the NRL, the gap is wider than it ever has been and it is only going to get wider at the moment.

NRL - When it was on sky sports I found it rather boring could not get into it so i am not going to pay for Sentanta!

And maybe the games was low quality as you put it, not ever game in super league will be like that you know!

How. If skillfull fast players and high intensity rugby is boring then i am following the wrong sport. Biggest myth in rugby that the NRL is boring, something that has only been put about in the time it has been on Setanta as well i may add.

Not every game is low quality but 90% are and we are happy to accept it as its more competative. We should look to improve standards not lower them across the board to make it "interesting".

Best team won today and we wernt at the races but we should have levelled it up in the second half from a penalty for holding down or a high tackle a couple of plays earlier - the ref let them off the hook in that regard especially after warning then not sin binning them for it ?? However, soundly beaten...

Most of the bigger teams we play against hold down. Leeds, Bradford, wigan and warrington etc. Seems to be an accepted norm. We should do more of it however when we have tried we are so clumsy and obvious we get penalised.

It's effective against us.

At the risk of derailing..... Its not boring, its a different skill set. Watch Saints, how many tries do they score off the back of fast play of the balls or penalties due to their speed? A very large % in my opinion.

Compare to the NRL, you can't get cheap metres from penalties - and get on a 'roll'. You need skill, craft and guile to break down a defense - simply catching the defense on the back foot and forcing them to give away a penalty for holding down/not square etc is not good enough over there as a general rule.

Its all about the 'wrestle' round the ruck, slowing the PTB down which in turn lets the defensive line get set - making them much more difficult to breakdown. I think there is a deffinate trend this year towards the ref's letting the wrestle happen for longer.

I just could not get into it what so ever. Tried but just could not get used to it, I cna watch any super league game on TV, maybe its because that is what I am used to?

I meant over here with the refs. Noticed it a few times both on Sky and in the flesh.

Agree. Its killing our game.

Wigan usually get dominated on the floor, today we were dominant, sad to say that turned out to be a deciding factor in the game, not exactly a great indication of the standard of our game at the moment.

sorry conection error.

I thought our opposition today played some of the best attacking RL I have seen all season (perversely I kind of enjoyed watching it). In saying that I mean they used their handling skill, off the ball running and speed of play to create scoring opportunities. If we can't play with a very low error rate against sides like that and take every half chance we will struggle because we don't have sufficient personell with similarly high skill levels.

Most tries I have seen this season (incluing the ones we have scored) have been effectively taking advantage of pressure or oposition mistakes.

Not all together sure that I buy the deterioration in standards debate but I certainly don't think we have seen a high standard of good attacking rugby league this year. Sounds trange I know give that we have had the best start to our top flight season in my 30 years following the club. Lets be realistic though we have been efficient not excellent.

I'd like to think today might act as a check on what I beleive are the unralistic expectations of a number of posters on here.