You've answered your own question. He's very good defensively and can tackle as hard has anyone on the pitch, but he never runs with the ball.
Not getting tackled in the last two games is not an indication of how elusive he is.
It shows that he never attempts to get past a defender, unlike the other 16 playing.

Lots of people do difficult jobs. The vast majority of them to a better standard than SL officials. Of course fans' view of a refs performance is coloured by their allegiance but there are some errors that would stand out anyway. I'm just as critical of performances when watching as a neutral. Maybe me and your dad simply have higher expectations, or are less inclined to appear 'right on' by not criticising the ref.


He did miss stuff for both sides, but made significantly more errors that benefitted Catalan. Some of that will be because we spent more time defending but some were just rank poor decisions. IMO it was a contributory factor in our lack of field position all night and in particular in the second half. However, if you take a look back at my posts during the game I make many more negative comments about our players than about Thaler. You - like a fair few others - fall into the trap of thinking that criticism of the ref must mean that the ref is being blamed for the performance, when in fact it's perfectly possible for officials and players to all be crap at the same time.

Fans of every sport criticise the officials. It's as futile when Premier League supporters do it as is it when you do. People are human. They make mistakes. Or even interpret things differently. How many times do you see the Sky pundits split about whether a decision was correct or not? Or even groups of fans, neutral and partisan alike? The fact is, that all the time we employ human beings to referee games, there will be differences of opinion about whether a decision is correct, just as there will be outright mistakes.



What an odd idea. I'm not sure why it could be considered 'right on' not to spend significant portions of just about every game bleating about officials. Maybe you and my dad are just obstreperous old buggers with nowt better to do?

The only other pro sport I watch regularly nowadays is Cricket, which is impossible to compare. Although I'm not that impressed with Umpires either. But it doesn't really matter. I don't care how good the officials are in sports that I don't watch.

I came to RL in the 80's from watching Soccer and Union mainly. The poor quality of the officiating hit me right away.

Are you watching Wire vs Leeds?

Child is an example of someone promoted way beyond his ability. Together with Roby he simply isn't SL standard. Has no idea how to control a game.

He's bottled that, pure and simple. Can't say he didn't see it, and there's absolutely no excuse for Briers to still be on the pitch.

Thing for me regarding the Catalan Match.. Gentle said in the paper that he was taking things back to basics regarding our defense and approach to the attacking side.

Our defense never let a try in despite many drop outs and plays within our 20.

Many say that Catalan never threw much at us, but me personally i feel our defense shut anything down early before they could.

Are the players not learning the set plays which Gentle trying to teach??