No it's not you illiterate fool. Pointless replying to you anymore because you don't actually bother reading what is actually written. You read what you want to see so that you can scream homophobe and bigot again and again.

I mean here's the thing, go back to 2012 and he's clearly like 6th choice referee. Silverwood and Thaler are the top two that year judging by how they got given the semis of both the cup and playoffs. Bentham did both finals in 2011 and Ganson with final experience is still around.

Child is doing the "rabble" most weeks but randomly you give your 6th choice referee Leeds vs Wigan at Headingley. Last week of the season you send Thaler to do Wakey vs Salford and Silverwood to Catalans vs Bradford whilst your 6th choice referee James Child gets given Wigan vs Saints out of no where.

Same in 2013, still way down the pecking order doing the lower matches and then suddenly he get Leeds vs Warrington both times and Saints vs Wigan again, even though he's clearly down the pecking order and the refs who normally do the big matches and the finals and semis aren't chosen instead.

2014 again it happens. Yet he has never once been deemed in the best two refs of the year which is obvious by the two that are picked for the cup semis and playoff semis. For the last few years and the 3 WCC games this year it's been Silverwood, Thaler and Bentham.

Tim Roby, referee around the same time and same level doing the lower teams in the league. How many games when two of the Big 4 faced each other in his time here???.........ZERO

Was he any worst than Child to have never at least gotten a big gig once?

Can anyone honestly say why he got these gigs every so often when it belied his performance and ranking in the list of referees and why a ref of similar age and experience never got a single one?

Leeds vs Wigan at Headingley and Wigan vs Saints at the DW. Always two of the biggest fixtures of the year and usually quiet fiery and in 2012 they gave both to James Child who was well down the pecking order of refs and people think everything is above board with that?

m.hulldailymail.co.uk/Hull-KR-ve ... story.html www.skysports.com/rugby-league/n ... om-actions That Tim Roby? Yeah Child getingt those games over him because he is gay is definitely the conclusion of a rational non homophobic person.

m.hulldailymail.co.uk/Hull-KR-ve ... story.html www.skysports.com/rugby-league/n ... om-actions That Tim Roby? Yeah Child getingt those games over him because he is gay is definitely the conclusion of a rational non homophobic person.

Plenty of people on here have explained why James Child gets these games - he is one of the best referees we have and the top teams cannot have Thaler/Silverwood/Bentham every week. Pretty simple explanation to most rational humans - why you don't seem to understand that I don't know - I probably do!!

No, the judgement that was made is that he only continues to get "big" games because of his sexuality.

If you didn't pick that up, maybe it's your comprehension that needs work.

And in the complete absence of any evidence to suggest that his employers have done that. I'll make my judgments on what I see and know thanks, rather than lavish speculation about an organisation's decision making process that has absolutely zero basis in fact.

Or are you now saying that wasn't what you implied?

Quote ="SmokeyTA"m.hulldailymail.co.uk/Hull-KR-vent-fury-ref-Tim-Roby-Leeds-snatch/story-16655267-detail/story.html www.skysports.com/rugby-league/n ... om-actions That Tim Roby? Yeah Child getingt those games over him because he is gay is definitely the conclusion of a rational non homophobic person.'" So Roby didn't get a single big game because you can find examples of his performances being criticised post match by the teams involved. Really? Seriously? You do realise what referee you're trying to defend here don't you? James Child the guy that's been criticised by coaches for his performance more than any other ref over the last 4/5 years. If a performance being criticised by coaches stops refs from ever getting a big game then Child would've been lucky to get Hunslet vs Whitehaven..

Quote ="SmokeyTA"m.hulldailymail.co.uk/Hull-KR-vent-fury-ref-Tim-Roby-Leeds-snatch/story-16655267-detail/story.html www.skysports.com/rugby-league/n ... om-actions That Tim Roby? Yeah Child getingt those games over him because he is gay is definitely the conclusion of a rational non homophobic person.'" So Roby didn't get a single big game because you can find examples of his performances being criticised post match by the teams involved. Really? Seriously? You do realise what referee you're trying to defend here don't you? James Child the guy that's been criticised by coaches for his performance more than any other ref over the last 4/5 years. If a performance being criticised by coaches stops refs from ever getting a big game then Child would've been lucky to get Hunslet vs Whitehaven..

Well, nobody previously seemed to think he was one of the top referees we had.....now magically one or two do for their argument. And yes maybe the top teams can't have the top refs every week, so say when Leeds play Salford or Wigan play Wakey maybe give Child that. You don't in 2012 when he's well down the pecking order of referees and still quite inexperienced randomly give him Wigan vs Saints, arguably the biggest league fixture of the season.

You can make your judgements however you like, I don't care. You seem to be the one concerned with how I make mine.

Perhaps have a judgement then on what you can see and that is on Child randomly being awarded the Leeds vs Wigan and Wigan vs Saints games back in 2012. Surely people can't use the "he's was one of the top refs" for that because quite frankly he was 6th best at the time and we are talking about two of the biggest dates in the league calendar.

You think know that Tim Roby not getting games because of his performances is a more outlandish conclusion than James Child getting them because he is gay? That is not the conclusion of a rational non homophobic person.

But you don't know Andy. You can make a judgement on what you would like to be the case, and perfectly entitled to do that, but you don't know it isn't something else.

I think saying Roby didn't get a single big game because his performances were criticised is a stupid way to try and defend Child who was criticised even more.

Both would regularly do the "lowest" games of the round for a few years but Child would randomly get plucked every so often to do Wigan vs Saints or Leeds vs Wigan or Leeds vs Warrington.

Let's just address your bigoted nonsense mathematically. There are 2 finals 4 semi finals and 12 games between the big 4. That's 18 games. Of which James Child refereed 2.

If those 6 referees had those games distributed them evenly Child would have had 1 game more.

However 2012 was Tim Roby's first year as an SL ref so he wasn't going to get them. So some referees would have had 3 games and some for. Child still only had 2.

Oh but it gets worse for you because Phil Bentham broken his leg in 2012 and as such wasn't available from may onwards. So there were actually only 4 referees able to referee those games. So those games being distributed evenly would have given Child either 4 or 5. He still only got 2.

These 2 games to you. Out of 18. Largely shared between only 4 refs. Is according to you such a massive over representation We should reasonably conclude that he got them because he was gay.

2012 was Tim Roby's first season as a full time ref. It was James Child's 3rd.

So now six years, constantly voted the worst referred, and many occasions of incompetence. Yet still reffing at the top level and the top games. I wonder why that could be

No, big games didn't used to be "shared" around the referees. When the big 4 played each other, the top ref's were given them, simple......until they started to randomly give the 5th or 6th 'best' Child the big games.

the best ref in rugby union is Nigel Owens, the worse ref in super league is James Childs, they happen to be gay which is not a factor in the assessment

Since then Steve Ganson has retired. Tim Roby has moved to Australia and we can't have 3 referees refereeing 6 games is a possible reason.

Where he puts is willy is according to some the logical conclusion but I'm not convinced.

really. So Ian Smith never got any big games? Ian Smith was nowhere near the standard of thaler Bentham Ganson klein or Silverwood. I'm guessing he never ever refereed a game between the big clubs?

So they deliberately hired (or in this case effectively over promoted) a man less capable of doing the job than others because he's gay. But they did it out of what motivation? The reason for positive discrimination is to prove that you are a diverse organisation and to encourage others from those backgrounds to do the same.
It'd be like that Batley player coming out but not actually telling anyone.


So it was a considered thought then? Oh dear.

I don't know why you're commenting on the game it's irrelevant to what I posted or what you posted.
What you don't seem to realise is that people question all the referees except Thaler at the moment. Yet Child is the only one you or anyone has questioned is there due to ulterior motives. Why does Richard Silverwood get big games? He's been consistently poor not to mention a few off-field issues over the years.
What about Bentham? He screwed up the Leeds v Wigan Cup Final not so long ago. What kind of positive discrimination are the RFL using to keep giving him big games?


You are monumentally either misunderstanding or deliberately misconstruing people's responses to Child. I hope it's the former as the latter would mean you are determined to stick to your prejudice.

People say Child isn't a good referee. That doesn't mean he isn't one of the best we have. The 2 aren't mutually exclusive. He IS one of the best we have. We only have 5 or 6 referees. There is only Thaler who is consistently good enough to be considered a top ref but he can't do every game. The RFL have a policy of trying to make sure teams don't get the same ref over and over again so there will always be an element of sharing the games between the refs, and as Smokey's maths shows there are a lot of big games. Leeds will have played 12 or 13 "big games" this year just against Wigan, Saints & Wire. James Child is going to have to ref some of them, especially as one of the refs is very new in Joe Cobb and Robert Hicks is behind Child in the pecking order. So even if you think Child is rubbish, which I do, he's still at least 4th in our refs behind Thaler, Bentham & Silverwood.

This doesn't really play into a positive discrimination situation. Especially as you admitted the RFL didn't make a song and dance about it and that there doesn't appear to be any other case of positive discrimination.

So I'll ask the question again.

Is there any evidence, at all, of positive discrimination in the case of James Child?

That isn't true at all though is it? Which makes the two questions quite irrelevant.

We have 6 appointed fulltime officials, which is wrong to start with. Had we not been in that position, and Child was still reffing then it only makes the situation worse.

We have 9 other regular refs who back up Super League, and three of those consistently put in better performances than Child. Why are they not promoted when they do this consistently?

Of the six we have in Super League full time, Child is continually voted the worst. At Magic Weekend, Hicks and Cobb, were by far and away the best referee performances of the weekend. In view of Roby leaving, Cobb was moved up. Hicks (who I must admit myself have never had time for), since Magic Weekend, has consistently produced very good performances, and in contrast to Child is on a different planet. How many big games does Hicks get again? (and I am not talking finals, I am talking Super League big games)

Is anyone saying the Super League refs are assessed at the end of each year and decided upon who stays based on performance? If not and this doesn't happen, why not? In any job, if you consistently do not meet the expectations of you, then it is dealt with. Why, after six years is Child not dealt with?

Saying he is one of our best six refs is just nonsense, that is easy to argue against. Saying he is one of on six full time officials would be correct, and then we are back to the arguments of this thread, why is he still one of those six fulltime?

In what way in your view was it arguably the biggest league fixture of 2012?

I don't know that it is either, but that doesn't seem to have stopped some people on this thread asserting it to be fact.

Heavy going, this. Anyone fancy a pint ?

Maybe it's because there's nobody better to replace him because nobody wants to be a full time Super League referee? Maybe that's because it's a thankless job where if you're perceived to have a poor game some knuckleheads will claim you only got the game because of your sexuality.