The woman behind me was using far more offensive language than I heard from the SS singers! Not great when you are sitting with a youngster.

I actually don't have a problem with the W** chant - it shows frustration with a poor ref - As long as it is not overused. After all any competitive sport is passionate and supporters pay a lot of money and deserve decent officials. Don't get me wrong everyone makes a mistake but not as regular as JC

It amazes me to hear about the homophobia element - I have been at most of the matches in the past few years and have not heard anything being chanted by any team.

James Child is not the greatest ref in the world and it amazes me that the powers that be do not do anything to help him progress.

It particularly amazes me that we seem to see the same ref on a regular basis and bearing in mind the reception he has received then I cannot believe the RFL are not actually provoking the situation

Allocating refs should be simple - A strong panel of refs who are allocated games to ensure that they are rotated around the grounds/ teams evenly. That way we all get a good/poor/biased/unbiased ref on an equal basis

Or am I being simplistic

I did not the reception he got when he first came out to warm up - He was with a trainee I think??? He did whisper in the trainees ear - probably to suggest that they may not want a career as a ref?

Having said that, I do respect him for having the courage to come out week after week and face the 'mob culture' fans can often display

Yep, pretty much.

Of the games I've seen him ref He's had 1 or 2 good games over the last few seasons, but if you put it into context that most referee's only have 1 or 2 bad games in the same period it says a lot about the man.

He appears to try too hard to take the mantle of Gansen/Silverwood, where the game is all about the ref!

I recall St Helens coach Daniel Anderson telling the RFL that he didn't want the inept Ian Smith to referee his team ever again....and I'm sure he didn't until after Anderson had gone back home.

How about that for influence ?

Hicks has improved exponentially since the end of last/start of this season. He has simply got better and better while Child seems to have found his (substandard) level and stuck to it.

I cringe every time I see Child's name next to "Referee" on the team sheet and continue to wonder how and why he referee's in the top flight.

If it is because that there's no-one better then it's a very sad state of affairs indeed.

That's the answer and it is indeed.

I think Millward complained as well, we had about an 80% failure rate under Ian Smith for some reason.