Please re-read what you have written because in one sentence you are stating you don't expect them to be perfect and in another you appear to be expecting them to be perfect. I have already said they can have an effect but that effect is no more than any other element of the game. Would anyone berate a groundsman if a kicked ball deflected the wrong way off a divot and cost a team a try?

What many forget is the refs have one view and a split second to make a decision. 30 years ago we rarely had much controversy over referees decision because we didn't have multiple camera angles, slo-mo and multiple replays. There was also no t'interweb, so apart from a couple of people moaning on the terrace or in the pub, the only discussion and dissemination of an incident was conducted through the letters page of League Express or The Rugby Leaguer.

hicks was garbage . but so are most refs in super league

it was not that good

dont bite he is a retard

dont bite he is retarded

Which sentences, as I don't think I did? I'm not saying that I expect referees to never influence a result, or even that they ever could avoid affecting it in a slight way, what I am saying is that I think it is now happening too often to be acceptable. To expand upon your groundsman analogy, the occasional divot is acceptable, a quarter of the pitch looking like it's just been ploughed is not.

At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy nut, IMO there are certain facets of the game where the way they are dealt with appears to be influenced by the team they play for, or simply how good they are at hiding an element of cheating. Key examples are the severity/likelihood of punishment, forward passes, ball stripping, and interference at the ruck. Teams seem to be inconsistently treated in these areas, and the last 2 in particular lead to teams having possession/position they should not have.

Then the teams that are crap at those aspects of the game should get better at it. Or would you rather the ref blow up for everything he sees? Any player will cheat, if he thinks he can get away with it, some players and clubs are better at it than others. For years we've been crap at controlling the ruck, especially against teams like Wire, Wigan, Saints & Leeds. We can bleat but it won't do a blind bit of good, we need to get better, that's all.

I think far too many people place far too much emphasis on the degree of influence a referee can have on a game, while happily overlooking the players' shortcomings.

Dave, I know you are an ex ref and I do think its a difficult job but its the inconsistency thats so frustrating. I also think that the big teams get a lot of the 50/50 calls, in addition Hicks and Child have had to be promoted and they are just not ready, players like Sinfield and Tomkins can quite easily influence them.

The biggest frustrations for me are offside and the play the ball, I have seen a lot of games this season where laying on penalties are just random, the second half at wakey Hull were almost playing touch as they kept getting penalised for it. Hull had a lot of penalties earlier in the game (for different infractions) and it seemed like it was an evening up of the count. Offside could be managed better by two referees but we just dont have the quality available, maybe we could just use a junior ref to only police offsides and get them used to the environment.

Its not getting any better but there seems to be no accountability and no indication that the RFL are looking to improve the situation.

Surely thats the whole point of having a referee? He should blow for every infringement on the rules he sees, not just pick and chose which he does/doesn't which seems to be the case more and more no matter what games we watch otherwise whats the point in having rules and officals?

The off side is becoming a joke and in particluar the fact that Hicks couldnt even take Salford back the 10 at one point and was only 6 or 7 metres back and similarly us at one point.

Its the inconsistency of the officials in general and not just from referee to referee but also the inconsistency that is very much apparent with a referee in the same game.

Cummings really should be gone after this season as the standards are slipping and now they are full time professionals there abilities and performances should be monitored and accounted for.

Policing of the offside was non existent yesterday. i'm pretty sure the touchie is supposed to do this so either they weren't (which would seem unlikely to me) or the ref was ignoring them. there were honestly times yesterday when the whole of teh salford side were 2 or 3 metres in front of him and he did nothing. Don't remember 1 penalty for offside all game. I'm of the opinion that we should maybe try bringing in a junior ref in to police the defensive line and allow the senior ref to police everything else

I still don't think it's any owrse than it ever was. The only reason we talk about it on internet forums is because technology says we can.

A few posts back I made my position clear. I'm not happy with the lack of any responsibility or accountability and I also think that Cummings has had his day. The TJs are (or should be) used to police offsides, they are mic'd up to the refs but it all depends on the level of involvement that the referee dictates his TJs should have, he's in charge of them and that decision is down to him. I also don't agree with utilising Grade 1 refs as touch judges, something that has increased in recent years and I believe has more to do with paying full-time officials than anything else. Refs & TJs are looking at completely different aspects of the game, so I would much rather use the old system of a Senior TJ and an up-coming referee, rather than grade 1 refs. I'm also in favour of teaming a referee with two TJs so that they get to know each other and work together.

What get me posters sticking up for the bad ref's standards.The money fans pay they expect better from the man in the middle.Nobody would put up with bad service in a restaurant"you would complain"If you got bad service in a shop you wouldn't use that shop again.If a player has a bad game the fans let him know.So why defend a man in the middle making mistake after mistake.He should be answerable to somebody. Before posters have a go and say it's a hard job other people have hard jobs and if they make an error they are disciplined.If a person cannot do they job for 80 minutes without making error after error they should look for another job.