I thought he did ok, but many wont share the same view, brother said he went to college with him and hes a down to earth guy

Gave too many penalties IMO, but didn't have any effect on the game itself. Was just a little quick to penalise anything and everything, but as long as it's same for both sides (which it was), I generally won't complain at that.

On the flip side, he was fairly lenient with Josh Barlow who could have spent about 50 minutes in the sin bin. Nutcase that lad.

Tend to agree with most other comments about the game. Clare proved he is undoubtedly the best fullback option in our squad. Whilst I'd still rather sign a specialist one and play Clare elsewhere, he is definitely the best option currently available to us. I think it also showed when we have our best props available, our pack has a much better chance of dominating the game and giving the backs the space to play off it. Keeping Clough, Sidlow & Kavanagh fit is a big thing for us, especially if Mitch Clark is then the 4th option to do the "come off the bench, knock some bodies flying" role.
Defence much much better than previous weeks, although I won't get too carried away as Swinton didn't offer a whole lot. Blythe was the exception to that rule though, and I would very much point at him for those tries. They were obviously going to run at the side where the young lad was, and Blythe did very little to help him out, other than leaving him stranded. The try he bombed when he was over the line too was ridiculous. Had that been a close game, his complacency could have lost us the match.

Agree pretty much with what has been said.

I'd definitely give Ethan Ryan a bit more game time - he's definitely one for the future and should the first to be considered, providing he doesn't get overplayed, when the first choice centres are unavailable.

Didn't see much of Copa Kavanagh - did he go off injured? He did a short spell in the first half (less than 10 mins I think), and I can't remember seeing him again

Went off limping. Hopefully not too serious as i liked what i saw of Kavanagh in the pre-season friendlies.

Barlow's brother Sam is also a raving lunatic. Can't help wondering if it's nature or nurture, or maybe both.

Given their similar playing style, I wondered if they might be related...

He does, especially his leadership. But he is far better in the middle of the park than out wide imo.

Josh was once the golden child of rugby league was chased by every super league team spent a long time in the Wigan academy.

Presumably until said teams realised he was a couple of nuggets short of a happy meal.

I don't think he would find McDonald's!

If he is too much of a nutter to get in the Wigan side then I suggest he needs urgent medical attention.

Sounds like that Barlow has more than a few screws lose. Been red carded after getting involved in a brawl WHEN HE WAS ON THE BENCH!

I can see him getting a lengthy ban,running 20 yds from the bench to join in with a few haymakers.How does having a player sent off from the bench benefit the opposition exactly,apart from reducing an option of a replacement?

I may be wrong, but wouldn't Swinton have had to remove a player from the field and put him on the bench?

I would say almost certainly so.

That's exactly what I said, but it didn't happen, after Barlow was sent off he came and sat behind us in the Stand with his Family, his Dad asked him why he was sent off?He replied,I only hit their winger twice

,but Barlow wasn't even on the pitch when it started.he was in the dug out.

You`d have thought so, although I`m not up to scratch with the RFL rules.From the incident Swinton received 2 reds and a SB whilst we had a red and a SB.Both teams played with 11 players for 10 mins until both SB players returned.

I seem to remember a Bull's player being sent of whilst on the bench. It was quite a few years ago and, to be honest, I've forgotten who it was. The circumstances were a little different though, in that a scrap developed on the pitch near the touchline and the fight then spilled over into the 'tech area', so he'd no distance to run and get involved.....

In Barlows defence he only had 15m to go as it was close to the dug outs, awful ref lost it completely and should have stopped the incident by dealing with one a couple of minutes earlier when the Swinton player took a few swings with the play dead after a knock on, nothing done then same player does same again to same player and again nothing done so all hell breaks out. Some very poor refs at these games

Paul Medley against New Zealand? Some point in the early / mid nineties.

Standard of refereeing is getting worse and worse. Since when is Chris Campbell SL standard?!

I was at Dews - Fev yesterday and Roberts had with out a doubt one of the worst performances i've seen from a match official in nye-on 20 years of watching rugby league. No control what so ever, and his grasp on the technical decisions seemed to be very poor.

The bloke we had at Sheff wasnt great either...

I'm sure I remember David Hill exiting the bench to participate in an impromptu martial arts event in a game against, inevitably, Leigh. Alex Murphy had blatantly punched Brian Butler in the kisser precipitating the brawl. Murphy walked away and sat on the ball as the rest of both squads attempted to resolve the dispute.

Murphy was probably the best player I ever saw, and definitely the most complete ar****le.

Not sure if you're correct with it being Murphy in that particular game, though what you describe is certainly the way Murphy worked - start a fight then disappear..

Definitely agree with your summing up! To be honest, his attitude to the game makes his appearance in the Hall of Fame an embarrassment as far as I'm concerned.

I can remember a game from the early 70's when Murphy was player coach with Warrington. He caused a mass brawl to start by the old stand on the speedway track. He tried to get out of the way then but failed as he was grabbed around his throat by Albert Fearnley who was on the coaching staff back then