Is it just me or has the ref suddenly begun to penalise Wire for holding down when he's ignored most of Saints holding down? It seemed to start when Saints were 22 points down. Just a thought.

The start of the second half has just emphasised my point. Every time a saints player appeals for a holding down decision, they get it. No wonder I didn't renew my season ticket this year. The game is a farce if the ref can influence the result so much.

Silverwood was a disgrace. Levelled the game up and refereed both sides differently. He certainly stood by the rfl mandate of keeping games close/closer. I knew the 2nd half was going to be bad when he started by giving a non-existent knock on!

According to Sky TS was unhappy with Silverwoods refereeing of the ruck in the first half. I reckon he told the guys to put more effort into slowing down and disrupting the play the ball in the second half but we simply weren't as good at disguising it as Saints.

i heard that as well..bet sir tony was fuming with this idiot at full time...would love to see the penalty count..

Nobody was disguising it - he was just treating the two teams differently

Saints were pretty good at disguising high tackles as well then, because that's another offence apparently only Warrington were committing.

i hate pointing the finger at the ref, but tonight silverwood was a disgrace... he tried to get saints back into the game at every opportunity... he was giving them penalties for almost nothing..... he doesnt have a great record in wire v saints games.... but tonight he was awful

I watched on the box and we were on fire for the first 25mins.
I didn't notice what changed but we then certainly stopped making the metres in the centre and it became a real tussle.
In all honesty I didn't pick up on the lying on or pen count and didn't realy notice Silverwood reffing the sides differently.
Maybe what you guys saw was the real reason but I didn't really see it at the time.

One of the key events, not for the first time, was the departure of Mickey Higham from the pitch - with him went a lot of our impetus and we got dragged into a niggly, messy PTB and gave Silverwood the opportunity to hammer us, which he seized with gusto.

The swing in fortunes in the second half coincided with Mickeys return, and I also thought Ben Harrison's return put a lot of momentum back into our game.

TS said pretty much the above in the post-game interview, but disguised it as constructive criticism of overall inconsistencies in the league.

How about his failure to punish Warrington for being consistently offside at almost every play the ball?

Wow there are some bad losers. You got beat end of.

How about his willingness to penalise Warrington every time a Saints player threw themselves around on the floor at the PTB like a premiership footballer who's just dislocated an eyelash?

I was genuinely aghast at the refereeing. Disgraceful.

This cannot carry on.

I enjoyed watching Hohia turn into Our Lord in the Christ the Redeemer statue stood behind every tackle. What a joke. With his arms out stretched looking for a penalty. How ironic that it was him who gave the last penalty before Carvell scored. Reap what you sow.

You beat me to it with this post. Hohaia's entire game plan was based on intensively stare'ing at Silverwood whilst throwing his arms around in the air. If he put as much effort into his rugby he'd be a half decent player.

He wasn't refereeing the sides differently at all, it was just a reflection of who was on top in the game. Wire with Higham on were on top were direct and played through the middle and Saints had to hold down or we'd have been swamped even more than we were.

When Higham went off however Saints were pretty much on top. Last 10 of the first half and first 20 of the second was all Saints, probably 75% possession of the ball through that period. Obviously then you are going to cop a few penalties as you are defending more. A lot of the penalties actually given had very little meaning as well. We got several of them inside your 10 early in the count, which doesn't change much.

Higham is the Man of Steel for me this year, he's kept you going this season, when I don't think you've been as clinical as you have in previous seasons.

I thought the ruck was a shambles for both sides tbh.

Silverwood is known for being lenient at the ruck and I think teams know that.

All them pens you conceded was when we were on your line and you were trying your best to slow us right down. About the only time he managed the ruck well.

Even Eddie and Stevo " and that's a penalty. ..he's not give it, Saints were lucky there"

Words to that affect he must have said 5 times in the game.

People are only just noticing this? I've seen him doing it all year, he let's us get away with murder for the first 20 minutes and then does a complete 180 and gives every tiny little thing as a penalty. And then again the same in the second half, I don't know why he does it but I've gotten used to it somewhat lately, what a ball bag he is.

All that possession and you still got beat. You must be gutted.

Silverwood was poor last night. Not as awful as some on here are suggesting, but, poor. Had Evans' try been correctly scored, and then the subsequent Waterhouse try would have made the game 28-0, and virtually "dead in the water)" as a spectacle. (imo) He had been told down the earpeice, or been given a signal from the stands, to make the game more of a contest, so, he gave Stains more or less anything he could get away with, whilst turning a blind eye to any Stains indescressions (sp).

FFS, we are a sport. If we go 28-0 up because we've took our chances, that's "tough tit" to Stains. They shouldn't be allowed a foot in the door because somebody thinks the Sky watching public might turn off (because this game is becoming a foregone conclusion), and watch the footy. That was an important game, which still has a major impact on where the LLS is going. Silverwood's (and other's) decisions tried to change that. Very disappointing.

Well done to Stains on making it a tough match for the remaining 50odd minutes. We showed some fantastic resilience in that second half, and, much to the Sky team's chagrin (from what I was listening to) we got the two points.

For those who went to the game, but have Sky+d it, listen to Mr Clarke's summing up. He sounded like he'd just been told that someone has shot his dog. I've never heard someone's expression (over what was a good spectacle) to be so flat. Maybe it's because his beloved Wigan had just been beaten, and (bar last week's drab final between two poor teams) their season is shuddering to a halt, as they've run out of steam.

The inconsistency was staggering in the second half. Saints were lying all over the ptb when at times we only had to give the tackled player a second lool to be penalised by Silverwood. Still, you had to give credit to Saints: they'd clearly choreographed Hohaia flapping his wings as Willie Manu laughed simultaneously. Seemed to work.

A number of high shots completely ignored too, while we were pinged for ours on them.

I'm still not sure if it's Sky in the earpiece or simply human nature (are refs human?) but decisions going the way of the losing team has been a feature of SL games, and noticeably at televised games, for years.

I am convinced that referees apply punitive interpretation when awarding penalties, and Silverwood is pretty good at doing it. No matter how high/late a tackle is or blatantly offside defenders are, if it's the 1st and the ball is retained, refs look like they've turned a blind eye to the offence - but then they'll wait until later in the tackle count (usually 4th/5th) and award a penalty for something totally innocuous like delaying the play/interference ....... seems to be their way of maximising the penalty by allowing the team with ball in hand to get further down the pitch before awarding it .... and I don't mind that - usually gets the crowd fired right up as they think they're being badly done to at the initial offence. The only problem Wire have is in games like the SF against Hull or the debacle last game against Widnes, when we can't keep hold of the ball long enough to get to the 4th tackle!