Yes the ball steal, the one blatant decision which went saints way. But how could wellens have been a flop when he wasn't even tackled? I mean seriously? Wellens was the first player to lay a hand on him, and just because he went in aggressivley (but fairly) flower lost the plot.

Do you know what a flop is?

Walmsley made the tackle, ball hit the deck, Walmsley's hand never left him. Now unless I have grossly misinterpreted the rules, the tackle was complete.

You're right, but I'd prefer they all got penalised for it rather than that Dudson didn't. Free yourself, by all means, but when you start the Hong Kong Phooey crap you're penalised.

Watch it back fella, the tackle wasn't complete.

A fan complaining about a side being hard done to when they were the beneficiaries of a sin bin decision at a crucial part of the game and numerous penalty chances to seal the match even though they win in the end anyway?

Only in rugby league!

I thought the opposite myself, at least for long periods of the game. What is that cheap 'wood chopping' tactic Dudson is using worryingly often? Looked like he wasn't going to stop until someone got a broken arm.

I was just going to mention that myself. Happens every week and never ever gets penalised.

I said early on in the game that Wigan always get more than their share of the calls, but actually as it went on I felt it was Saints getting the rub. The only really bad one I remember that went Wigans way was the so called contact with the fullback mentioned earlier. The shoulder charge was inconclusive imo, there didn't really seem to be contact with the head, the damage may well have been done when he hit his own player. It would have taken a brave man to get the red card out. It will be interesting to see what the disciplinary make of it.

Just because Saints were awarded a heap of penalties, doesn't mean they were being favoured - simply that the referee was punishing Wigan's consistent indiscipline. Saints got the rough end of the stick tonight.

The same technique used by others week in week out. If you're opposed to it so much you should complain when it doesn't get penalised rather than when it does.

Does the player also follow it up by dropping a knee on the grounded player in these hundreds of occasions?

I'm more worried about the one time he did it that genuinely looked like he was trying to hack the Saints lads arm off, just as bad as the cannonball imo

I thought there was a very short ten tonight. Possibly due to the conditions or wigan play the ball not being as quick as usual. It smacks of classic Nathan brown niggle tactics and combine that with the most clueless ref in the league and you get a scrappy and fractious game.

You're more worried about this one time when the player was penalised than all the other times when players aren't? Anti-Wigan by any chance?

If you watch the first Wigan try half the Saints team were offside, however it worked in our favour that time as the ones that were left a disjointed defensive line.

The ref bottled the Hampshire knock on. He also bottled the shoulder to the head. No lack of clarity there, he aimed for the head and got it. Horrible cheap shot.

I had no problems with the knock on against Saints where Greenwood had it stripped, the Goons around me were going mental about him stopping a runaway try. Charnley was offside once the Wigan player touches it however.

The big talking point for me is the cannonball tackling. That is a far, far bigger issue than shoulder charges ever were. Do we really have to see a career ending injury to a star player before something is done about it? Wigan are clearly coached to do it, Wayne Bennett is on a crusade to get it banned in the NRL and he admits they all coach it over there. McIllorum's always been a scumbag, but those two attempts to damage knee joints were about his only contribution tonight. It's a pathetic and cynical technique that needs to be removed from the sport as soon as possible.

this was the same referee that had no hesitation sending off luke robinson in Perpignan in may for an almost identical challenge??, except robinson was proved he had no case to answer.
this one was heaps worse yet he doesn't see fit to send flower off.

inconsistency at its very worse!

I have nothing against Wigan... they can be a joy to watch, but not when a game is going against them it seems.

Which is pretty much anytime they aren't 2/3 scores up after the first 20 minutes.

I think there was a stat where out of 4 games they haven't scored first in this season, they've lost 3 and drawn one.

Even their 2 most recent trophy wins were on the back of being 16 points up after the first 20 minutes.

Pretty much since 2010 when maguire took over, their modus operandi seems to be, blitz the opposition in the opening 20, then switch to auto pilot and maintain for the remaining 60.

Nothing against Wigan, just that you're "more worried" about the fouls we commit (that get penalised) than those committed by others (that don't).

Who said I'm not worried by other teams? Quit the paranoia.

Will be interesting to see the result of the Wellens Water incident, I'm guessing just a fine for it though.

In his defence, Childs performance was better than Wigans.

In the grand scheme of things that happened in the game this is not even noteworthy.

It did lead directly to a Wigan error that gave Saints good field position, and ball tampering is surely against the rules. May not have had a massive impact, but it is still illegal.