Don’t agree entirely. They can have a huge impact and have cost us dear on the past. However this year we’ve done ok with only a few games where the reffing went heavily against us. As you say it’s certainly not the reason why we are where we are this season.

We beat Cas and ibeleive the ref as well, without doubt 8f he could have swung it in Cas favour he would have.

When Cas won at our place this season they were the best team. However that night Kendal hammered us with dodgy six agains late in the tackle. Lost balls were strips when they had possesion and knock ons when we lost it. We never got in the game for the first 20 mins and by then it was all over. I cant stand the bloke as a ref.

Exactly the same happened against Leeds in the first half at our place. We didn’t help ourselves but the penalty count was very biased. In the second half the ref calmed down and we competed.

Can’t remember who reffed that one.

But they are the two games that I’ve seen that I felt we were reffed out of the game.

Funny how we remember things different. I thought Leeds exposed us on the edges and for the opening stanza really isolated our edges. That’s not to say we didn’t get hammered like you say but I can’t recall that so I’ll trust in what you say.

I find sometimes officials (not all the time) are predictable in how the penalise in phases. They can start of heavily penalising one team for a 15-20 minute period then put the whistle away and then later on it tends to get evened out somewhat. Often the flow of penalties and 6 agains tend to be given to one team consecutively on the bounce. Sometimes I find it justified when teams are pressing on the front foot but others I am left baffled at the lack of consistency around offences in the ruck and around play of the ball.

I honestly don’t think there’s any favouritism at play though. I do feel for officials as I think the investment they likely get for training and support would be much less than many other pro sports. Nobody wants to do a bad job and I’m sure that the officials feel the same.

That’s why I put we didn’t help ourselves. They did but it’s much easier to do that if your basically getting 10 play the balls a set with all the set restarts.

We could possibly have kept the first half score lower and the second half revival may have paid off. It’s a matter of degrees but it all counts.

It does and it’s one that got away. It’s more the consistency. McShane was told by the ref a few times to get hands off the ball and messing about at the play of the ball without being penalised yet I think only a set or two after trinity got penalised for hands in without warning. It’s things like that I don’t understand where the consistency lies.

I will say though that the way we played last two games we have been quite well disciplined.

I agree with you 100% about Kendall, but this kid is ruled by the moon, so unpredictable, lets hope things go our way.

We have one thing in our favour with Catalan in that the ref cannot be swayed by the away fans.

It almost certainly why players like Tomkins are so vocal, I genuinely believe it’s a tactic to be constantly in the refs ear. They train to do it in the hope it negates any home crowd advantage to the opposition and it works imho.

I know he’s as mouthy when Cats are at home but as they say practice makes perfect.

This is of course the hardest of the three games.

Against Saints there was nothing to lose as nobody expected anything much.

Ditto Cas if not more so.

Now suddenly there is expectation in the air again and let’s be honest if the last three seasons are anything to go by we don’t handle it well.

What’s done it for us in the last two games imho is composure. We cut out most of the errors and virtually all the indiscipline.

If we revert to silly panic RL and start to believe we are superstars as happened post Warrington we are back to square one.

As ever this season Sunday depends on which Trinity turns up. Long way to go yet.

This is really what I was getting at - we gave the referee no chance to get to us because we did everything right. We need the same attitude against Catalans.
If we get drawn into the style of rugby we played prior to Saints, then sorry but we're our own worst enemies because we provide ammunition for the referee to penalise us. Let's face it we were dire at times!
Now, having said all that, I dislike Kendal as a referee. He seems to make his own rules up and he's arrogant.

Correct and its hard to believe that's been rectified completely. In truth it's only a matter of time before the discipline slips, we just have to hope it doesn't slip all the way. I've watched a lot of our games again this year (painful as it was) and 90% of the penalties were justified. Some were tight but once you get the Ref on a roll it's your own fault.

It's not fitness, lack of pace ore go forward that's destroyed us this year. It's simply been a case of choosing not to play the game right. Too many penalties, too many basic errors, far too many forced passes and kicks at the wrong time. Thats whats made the last two games so good, it's been like watching a professional team. If we can stick to the above for the rest of the season we have a chance. We will have more bad games I'm certain, we are just that kind of team and that can't change in a month.

If things work for us two more wins might do it, three almost certainly. Three is a 50% success rate, when you think JK had to more or less do a 100% in 2006 in six games then it's possible but still very difficult.

Yep without the video ref we'd have struggled....
Gave theirs as a try - which would have made it 6-6, but was overturned eventually and correctly by Smith.
Gave Lewis' as a no try which was correctly overturned.
That would have made a massive difference at the time....

I have heard a rumour ,but I dont know how credible, that it was party time after beating Cas. I have no problem with the players celebrating a win and its a 9 day turn round so its fair enough in that sense also. What worries is me is exactly what you have alluded to. They may now think they are actually better than they are, job has been done and we are safe. It must be drilled into them that the hard work has only just started and there is a long way to go.

I have heard a rumour ,but I dont know how credible, that it was party time after beating Cas. I have no problem with the players celebrating a win and its a 9 day turn round so its fair enough in that sense also. What worries is me is exactly what you have alluded to. They may now think they are actually better than they are, job has been done and we are safe. It must be drilled into them that the hard work has only just started and there is a long way to go.