Every play the ball this season should have been penalised.

The ball is never played with the foot and the opposition always have at least one player offside.

that would depend on the ref as I've seen them in the past take them back 12 yards, true on the play the ball that area has been allowed to change to speed it up

No scrum half as retired behind the scrum for the last 15/20 years, since it became the norm for the person in the loose forward position (usually the hooker,) to pick up the ball and pass it.

Same as nearly every kick off someone is in front of the kicker.

Shame instead of commending a brilliantly executed set move from a scrum, the agenda is to try to find a reason to blame the try on poor refereeing.

Great play for all of the tries scored by both teams last night.

Surely Percival was offside for his try.

I get it, it's basically pay back for mcmanus comments.

It opened the door to all this.

Absolutely.
St Helens introduced absolute venom into the discussion of referees this season and they deserve everything they are getting with their hypocrisy being eposed today, rightly overshadowing their final victory. Kendall's middling performance would have been the subject of grumbles little more had it not been for the context of what Saints did to Hicks.

You live by the sword, you die by it. Hopefully this will teach them a lesson for their disgraceful behaviour after the cup final, behaviour which we have still to see the sad final end of if rumours are correct.

This has been a fantastic read lmao

Certainly hasn’t overshadowed anything for me, if it helps others to come to terms with Saints as blatantly deserved champions that’s great.

So that makes it ok then.



Look, even I'll admit some rules are open to interpretation in open play in the name of letting the game flow. We all know that. We'd see 50 penalties a game otherwise.

But - in a try-scoring decision at a critical juncture in the biggest game of the year, this is supposedly the best officiating team in SL, with the tools to review everything. They missed one of their own laws, and that simply isn't good enough.

You take this as anti-Saints or as intending to tarnish the win. It isn't (from me, anyway), but too much went wrong last night and the game was massively influenced by it. I'm not commenting again on it, there really isn't much point.

Spot on. It’s the cumulative effect of several calls that all go one way. Something which Kendall has form for.

LMAO. Your final sentence has proven beyond any doubt that wiginers have no idea what they are talking about.

This is spot on for me.

I don't begrudge Saints the win. They were great at what they do. Most of those 50/50 calls went Saints way, and on review probably shouldn't have. It's hard enough playing against Saints when calls are fair or even, but almost impossible when those calls go against you when they shouldn't have. The sad thing thing was that when we eventually got decent field position we scored, and may have scored another with Lolohea if the call had gone upstairs. When we get into the opponents twenty we more often than not score or score on the back of new sets. We simply couldn't retain that position because most of the time a bad call was made when we ventured anywhere near their twenty.

Be interesting next year now that teams know how Saints play whether they can do the same again. I get the feeling this year that they have been so dominant for the first twenty minutes of both halves that games are generally already won. Whenever I've seen teams test them defensively they leak points, it's just that most teams have been blasted out of the park before anyone can try.

Anyway, congrats to Saints, and hopefully this experience will be invaluable for Salford going forward.

So it appears that the "neutrals" are in agreement the ref won the game for St Helens.

The "neutrals" that would have loaned out their wives, girlfriends, mothers, daughters and even the family pet for a Saints defeat.
Grow up, Salford were not disgraced they were beaten by the better side.

I think most are saying that it ruined any chance of the game being more closely contested, rather than change the result. I think Saints would have still won if those calls had gone the way they should have, but I'm betting it would have been a whole lot closer.

Dear me. It quite clearly was obstruction and the correct call.

I honestly can’t believe the stick that Kendall is getting. He got a couple of calls wrong- surely that happens every game. To suggest he was biased is ridiculous. Calls went both ways.
Something to give those of you moaning a bit of food for thought. The calls most are moaning about are mostly ones where players were attempting to cheat. So who really should you be having a go at? The ref- or those cheats?

You must have watched a different game...

I'm mostly having a go at the St Helens club whose disgraceful conduct the past couple of months deserves to be highlighted more than this Grand Final win.

Saints lose at Wembley. Not the refs fault.

Saints win at old Trafford. Was the refs fault.

Thankfully, unlike the jealous Wigan and Warrington fans, the Salford fans have shown their class being gracious in defeat.

Surely that is why there is a ref on the field - to ensure that both sides adhere to the rules and to do their best to sort out any "cheating".
Although there were some poor calls both ways, there were a couple at critical moments which caused a momentum shift back in Saints favour.

Saints were deserving winners and have been the best side all season, apart from resting half their squad (twice) against London.
Ashworth for Saints was a very lucky boy to stay on the field. A high shot followed with a deliberate "head butt" should have seen him off the field for 10 minutes, something which Kendall interpreted as a "natural coming together of heads", which is most definitely was not.

The majority of this thread is embarrassing. I agree Kendall didn’t have his best game but was he the reason why Saints won the game? Absolutely not, Saints were by far the best side on the night and have deservedly won the title after another excellent year. Salford have had a great year and gave it a good shot last night. I don’t understand why it’s so hard for rugby league fans to just leave it at that and accept that St Helens are deserved champions.

I also find the amount of abuse Kendall is getting quite staggering when you look at how Rob Hicks was defended after making far worse calls in the Cup Final. To summarise, the anti Saints drivel on this forum is pathetic and some people need to grow up. And no, I’m not a Saints fan either.

The Hicks abuse came from the top of the St Helens club. It wasn't more widespread than that because he had a pretty good game at Wembley. Kendall's performance last night was rather worse, unfortunately. He shouldn't be getting abuse for it because it wasn't premeditated but the St Helens club is rightly being ridiculed for its hypocrisy - and they should continue to be held accountable for their actions after the cup final.

Saints have always been a club most fans, pie eaters apart, seemed to have quite a bit of time for. If there is antipathy towards them right now it's not because they are the champions, it's because of the way they have conducted themselves the past two months.

I think you will find that no one at Saints abused Hicks, the only people to abuse Hicks and his family were from Warrington.

No death threats from Saints, so you need to re-prioritize what is really abuse.

I see there has been no action against Warrington this year for their continuing trend of violent behaviour

Pitch Brawls
Riots in the stands
Bricks thrown at coaches
Death threats


This faux bitterness is a massive deflection from fans of a club that have been let off by the RFL for some of the most reprehensible behaviour there has been in the last few years of SL.

This patterns follows an off-field altercation with Wigan players during last years final at half time.

How about taking the plank out your own eye before finding the splinter in ours.

Hicks made one (very poor) call and was panned, not by Saints coach, not by the fans but, by Saints Chairman, which was disgraceful.
Kendall is being QUESTIONED for a number of calls last but, lets keep things in perspective.
Being slated by "neutral" fans, is nothing like being called out by a club chairman who's side were beaten in a cup final and I have a question for you.
Having noted that one of his fellow refs was slated by Saints coach, do you think this may have blurred Kendall's judgement, even slightly or, affected, even slightly, how he reffed the game ?
What McManus did after Saints cup final loss was very much in the style of Alex Ferguson at Man United, who was a master at getting into the heads of the officials (and the oppositions) head.
Just for measure, I repeat that Saints were the best side and ARE worthy champions but, that doesn't mean that people shouldn't question certain things.
After all, this is a RL forum