Really? I thought he lost total control when the game blew up a few times, the 10 was ridiculous throughout and allowed Wigan to lie on and slow the play the ball massively.

True. He also seemed willing to penalise US for laying on.

Missing training was the main reason Leeds moved him on ,he still had a year left on his contract.

Can anyone tell me the actual duties of linemen aswell? Apart from the duty of robbing a wage from superleague? Absolutely useless! How they didn't see Graeme hornes knock on in the scrub late in the 2nd half is beyond me! Think every person in East stand saw.

We did get away with that one didn't we! Thought Charnley had got back into the field of play when Hicks gave a drop out early in the first half as well. Still, its about time a few 50/50 calls went our way.

Heard Weyman had an op on his troublesome knee, and is out for the next month.

The 10m is a lottery. One tackle Hicks would go back 8-9m, next tackle it would be 14-15m. Early in the 2nd half at Wakey Craig Hall fielded a kick & just wriggled out of his in goal by 2-3m. Roby stood on the 20m line for the play the ball. Never buy a carpet off a SL referee!

Yeah I saw that but don't stand South side of East stand so didn't get a real clear view and turned a blind eye to it with the lack of protest from charnley tbf.

This annoyed me, he let them lay on and slow the play the ball down but was in like a flash the minute we did it. I think that Wigan got away with it because they are Wigan and we are not renown for the speed of play, until this season. He lost control, resulting in too many 'handbag' incidents. At least he didn't 'engineer' a win for them, which he seems to do when he referees us. I'd say it was a poor performance, but not as bad has he has been in the past. (maybe because we won !!!!).

The linesmen were poor and unfit.

Its true that he had an op.
The club are hoping he's only out for a month, however I heard talk yesterday that if its a much longer period, then they may have to consider other options, he may even call it a day himself if the injury is a long term one.
Apparently they are going to wait and see what the prognosis is before any long term decision is made.

If this is correct then we need to get another prop in, Bailey only managed a cameo so far and we look light up front even with a fully fit squad.

Realistically we need to help walker allgood and green out with another prop or 2 we can't expect these 3 to turn up and play as well as they did yesterday every week,
will be interesting to see what 19 gets named this week to see if CC has realized what we all know that Carlisle and welham ain't very good and shouldn't be in our squad

I wouldn't necessarily agree, Especially when we have a fully fit squad, We do have

Allgood
Walker
Bailey
Weyman
Green
Cox
Burke

Granted if we lose a third player we may start to struggle but how many clubs wouldn't struggle to cope with three props missing although we'd still have four to choose from. A big point if they stay fit will be who to choose from each week. Can't really remember a time where we've rested players for restings sake and not forced rests due to injury so that option later in the season would be nice.

Difficult dilemma this, but less of an urgent priority as Burke played prop yesterday and played well. From where I was sitting he looks a big unit as well.
Expect Horne might get picked again for his utility value as a back up hooker, so my worry then would be an abundance of lightweight back rowers. Cox and Bailey will add size and grunt to all areas of the pack, but this assumes Cox recovers from injury soon and Bailey gets out of bed on time in future and hasn't pi**ed on his chips already.
Agree with your assessment of Carlile and Welham and expect them both to figure on the Halifax or Newcastle team sheets soon.

Not a massive surprise to see Burke at prop that was his main position for Wigan. Burke did go on duel reg to Workington and play in the back row but only twice I may add, on announcing his signing Chester saw him as a loose who could play 2nd row or prop.


Whats up with Cox. Didn't actually realise he was injured, Thought he just wasn't getting selected.

I read on here that he was recovering from an op ( think on his shoulder) in the off season and is getting back to full contact training soon

He (Cox) apparently had some kind of a fit or seizure two or three weeks ago while attending a Kr function and has undergone scans to try and find out the cause.
I don't have any updates though perhaps someone else does and would like to share them with us.

Well SirStan having licked my wounds for a couple of days, yes that new stand is very good, stewards nice and friendly, food and drink ok, one gripe is if you are in Block A feels like you are sat in the car park but we moved to block B as there was space and that was fine, how dumb are we playing at the moment, anyway you got stuck in and got the win, this top 4 is going to be interesting also the bottom 4, we are going to have to improve big time, see you at the DW or what ever it will be called by then as Dave W has done one.

Sad man that I am I have just watched the game (at work) & to be fair to Wigan they did lay on but what they did not do was go back in for a second effort, just slow as hell getting off. We were penalised a couple of times but our players went back with another effort . What was bad was the 10 meters, he went back but Wigan stayed in front of him all day, it asks the question why don't we push the limit as well.

Hasn't rochdale warrior been a lovely visitor over the last week and a bit, early contender for "Visiting Fan Of The Year".

Indeed he has. I hope he comes back to let us know if he got a seat with his pint.

Had to stand up but the band was ok !

TBF to Hicks, who I thought had one of the best games I can remember him having, he was taking both sides back more than 10, metres and letting them stand in front of him, we did catch on to this eventually whereas Wigan were doing it from the off. At least thats how it seemed to me at the time.

I would rather a game be reffed like that - take them back 11/12 metres and if they are slightly in front then you know they are still onside, and if they are miles in front then it is a lot clearer they are offside in stead of trying to work on fine margins such as when ref's stand dead 10 metres. If anything you at least know the ref is not only going back 7/8 metres making it impossible to play rugby and allows for a more free flowing game, which i'm all for.

I don't think hicks was outstanding on sunday, but in what was a difficult game with the tension i thought he handled it ok. I think he was fair at least, and that's all you can ask for even if the decision making is not 100% and he pinged both sides for the same things. I can handle a ref consistently inadequate for both teams, but it's when it favours one of the bigger teams against you thats what really grinds my gears and i do not think we got that on sunday.

Or equally the linesman could look along the 10 metre line and ping anyone in front, basically do there job (if the ref listens to them)