If you think he's bad, ask older Australian supporters about a certain Greg Hartley (and stand well back!!).

Coaches and players would be sacked/dropped if they consistently made major errors in every game they were involved in. Childs is a professional referee, paid by the game a decent salary - at the very least he should perform with some level of competence.

Questions also need to be asked of Cummings - and his role in selecting and appointing the full time panel of refs.

Which leads to the question,why wasn't Silverwood treated in similar fashion to Childs ?

Despite the earlier pun his signals were NOT very good either,but it is fair to say there was a gale blowing with heavy downpours.

[uAND[/u

Silverwood allowed a try following a pass from the floor in the same game.

He had a good game when he refereed Leigh v Widnes in the snow in '81

I didn't see the incident well enough to comment.

isn't his name 'Child'??

Well Ski laid the platform...

He isn't a professional referee-not that that justifies him making a mistake, which is what it was-a mistake.

Well there was no need for anyone else to jump on board.

He isn't refereeing a SL game this weekend.
He's touch judge in the Friday game at Salford and at HKR on Sunday.
So it does look like he's been dropped from refereeing for this weekend.

And the Championship teams breathe a collective sigh of relief.

PHEEEEEEEEW!

had a stinker when leyth played catalan. leave him in the SL

Correct. Not sure which is more amusing. A ref who can't count or the people slating him getting his name wrong.

Define!!!!

Don't see what the fuss is about. Yes Bradford had an "extra 3rd tackle" (because he shouted "4th" twice, but it's not as if much extra ground was made, and no confusion was caused, as it seemed nobody on the pitch noticed it either.

I could understand it more if the try was scored because the defenders thought it was the last tackle (i.e. if he had called 5th twice) and had played their last tackle routine, but they didn't. It did not affect what happened on the last scoring play, which Bradford would have done whenever the ref called the last tackle.

the question is what advantage did Bradford gain by having an extra 3rd tackle. The answer is not much at all. It can't fairly be argued to have cost Saints a try.

It is very embarrassing for Child, but otherwise was no big deal, as it happened (though it could have been)

When I pay to watch the rugby, I'm there to be entertained and as such I allow my attention to be largely occupied by the running, passing, big hits, tries etc. I don't really concentrate on the tackle count for each and every set.

If I was paid to, mind...

I'm not actually outraged, by the way, but surely you expect refs, more so than fans, to pick up simple things like tackle counts?

I agree it wasn't a gamebreaker (on this occasion) but a shocking error from a referee.

No.

They're all just letting off steam

Some of these puns really have been first class, the authors must have had a good coach.

Well they should concentrate so we can keep this thread on the tracks and get through the relevant points.

It's clear, Child is a poor conductor of the game.

=#FFFFFFOne for the nostalgics

Personally I've always thought Shaun McRae shows a good knowledge of the rules. He'd probably make a perfect fat controller of the games

you lot are all loco!

Good call that, Loco. Motive perhaps to stop railing against refs, and treat as a signal for shunting the thread into a siding, as it has clearly arrived at the terminus and hit the buffers?