It's just Hicks is out of his depth. Plain and simple.

Didn't deserve that last try

Epic effort from Hull against 14 men.

Fair play to Wigan, played some stuff stuff but better team lost imo.

don't think its fixed, but some of the decisions do make you wonder

You win some, you lose some. Had some calls gone our way at Wembley and we win the cup, today we got the rub of the green.i didn't hear any hull fans bemoaning reds decisions two weeks ago, but we were classed as sore losers when we did. Swings and roundabouts, but I do agree that the standard of refereeing this past two seasons or so has been atrocious. It won't stop me from smiling tonight though

the trouble is whenever hicks gets the gig you know someting like this is going to happen. the biggest games need the best refs simple as

Aside for a little blip at the start of the second half where they looked a little I don't think there was much wrong with that performance. A referee who has been paid off and down a man for most of the game, to come that close really shows what a great team we are!

There would have been s meltdown had it been Danny Houghton on the floor cold from a Nuasaala elbow/forearm. Contact with he head from a raised arm. Doesn't matter if it's not at shoulder height, he lifts the arm as he goes into contact and hits his head.

So every high tackle should be a red card then?

No, it's not 'fixed'.

have you actually watched the incident, at most wattys was fending. but whatever

There's a rule about leading with the elbow/forearm. Mickey Mac's height doesn't come into it just like say, Rob Burrow's doesn't. The arm raised into the tackle - elbow/forearm makes contact with the head. Incidents are dealt with on a case by case basis and you know they are so don't be facetious to suit your point. We saw head high tackles in the game get penalty only - Sean O'Loughlin rightly so gets a red for a clothesline last season.

The crux of it is he switches ball carrying arms and then raises. If he uses the ball carrying arm and tucks in, theres no issue. Also if he uses an open hand there's no issue. You can't accuse Watts of raising the forearm and it simply becomes a case of unfortunate head placement. There is an element of that but you can't argue with the fact that the arm is raise. It's not a fend - a fend is with an open hand, not a bent arm raised.

I don't for a second believe Watts intended what he did and it was more of an instinctive reaction MM flying out, but as we see time and time again; there has to be a duty of care at all times to opposing players. Players are put in dangerous positions all the time and they are punished for it, two players in as many weeks were sin-binned for it. They've massively clamped down on it.

I'd certainly expect the Wigan player to be off if it was the other way round and I mean that genuinely.

A fair post, but I just can't agree. Purely accidental imo, and similar to what you say, if it was a Wigan player I wouldn't have expected them to be punished either. It wasn't premeditated, he didn't run in leading with the elbow, it was a last second reaction to a hit that he saw coming really late.

He doesn't switch ball carrying arm. Anybody who says that is chatting the biggest load of .
He catches the ball in 2 hands and then tucks it under his right arm. There is no moving the ball from under his left, to under his right.
No player in the league drives it in holding the ball in 2 hands so he has to put it somewhere! And he's not going to put it under his left cause it's a higher chance of McIlroum forcing the ball free.
The argument about the ball switches hands is a joke.

Yes. It's fixed.

Love it Wigan won. Best team got the result. Come on Lancashire.boom.