I think he ahd a fair game, but did miss a lot of things, whether deliberately to let the game flow, or just because he's Bentham.

Two late challenges were missed, on Leuluai & Tomkins, that were as bad as the one McIlorum was penalised for.

The decisive ones he didn't give were late in the game, though - we should have had any one of 3 penalties for offside in our last full set before the end, which would have given us the (deserved, IMO) draw.

It isn't about "winning" the penalty count, it's about getting the decisions right. Being awarded more penalties doesn't make me any more inclined to accept incorrect play the balls, constant off-sides, late tackles off the ball etc, especially in a game as close as that. Not to mention the foot out of play in goal - one of the most shocking decisions of the season.

Like I said, I don't know why you are complaining. Bentham, like most SL refs, is a mixed bag and I didn't see any wrong or right decisions go in any one way in particular. It was a mixed bag for both sides.

The feet in touch thing - wasn't that down to a touch judge's blindness rather than the ref's?

Well, I [idid [/ijust explain it.




It doesn't matter who made the cock up, my point is that getting the most penalties doesn't make bad decisions any more acceptable.

Oh well done phil, fabulous performance, your usual impartial reffing of a Wigan game.
He's as bent as a nine bob note, and, along with cummings in his ear he's cleverer than the lot of you put together. It's amazing how blatant decisions are accepted as "he was bad for both sides" NO HE WAS'NT.The penalty COUNT means nowt, it's WHEN and WHERE that counts, and as far as I'm concerned his antics are wearing a little bit thin. Why don't the club do a Daniel Anderson and threaten to refuse to play under a certain referee? it worked for Saints IIRC.

What is of more concern is the ridiculous ruling where referees are allowed to officiate at their hometown's club. Saw the highlights of Warrington v Bradford earlier and a couple of the Warrington tries were possible obstructions - the first went to the video ref and was awarded by Bentham. There's mention of this on the Bradford site.
Ganson's awarding the St. Helens try against Salford was also very questionable to say the least - hiding behind the "benefit of the doubt". I do not want Wigan v Saints games to be reffed by either of these two - in the important games ( last year's Playoff SF the crucial 50/50 decision ( Sean Long dragging Joel into touch when the tackle was complete) of course went against Wigan.

Do people remember that Ganson was referee in the 2 Challenge Cup defeats ( Catalans and Warrington) and the 2 play off defeats against Leeds as well as the Saints play off game?!! Am I becoming paranoid...?!!

Thought he had a good game. We didn't lose because of him put it that way

YES

I thought he reffed it very well.His job is made very hard by wigan at times when there is constantly 3 men in the tackle and lie on constantly and wait for the ref to tell them to get off.I thought once the tackle was made you had to roll away not start to roll the man over onto his back..Also i noticed about a lot of the wigan players trying to grab the ball in the tackle even though the saints players had no intention of offlading the ball.2 or 3 times in the game i noticed saints players trying to play the ball with the wigan players hands still wrapped round it .When the wigan player then tries to pull his hands away the ball is reefed out.

I'm sure this is a completely honest appraisal of what happened.

After all, your sign-in name indicates that you make fair play your highest priority.

How about the time when KFC ( i think it was not 100% tho) tackled one of our players while he was trying to play the ball

Then he swung his arm out at him



Not to mention when KFC saw Tommy with an invisible ball, but it was Wigan making it difficult wasnt it?



Both teams try to get away with what they can in every game and Sundays was no different.

Bentham penalised both incidents.

Exactly.

Who was the video ref

Ben Thaler

Were You actually sober enough to watch the game or even remember it?

Even Cullen in Boots' n' All was criticising the awarding of Warrington's first try against Bradford - he would have disallowed it for obstruction, but Bentham (apparently from Warrington) gave the try. Just as bad as Ganson giving St.helens their final try against Salford when he was obviously held up over the line. Neither of these were 50/50 calls but 95/5 calls ( the 5 being Warrington or Saints fans!!)

No ref should be allowed to officiate (as ref or video ref) at his hometown club - to try and avoid accusations of bias. Refs make mistakes, but if they are neutral then they are more likely to be viewed as "honest" mistakes by fans of both teams.

Bentham is from Leigh (he lives in Warrington)

There is no bias, refs hate all clubs / players equally. That's why they become refs in the first place

Salfords first try in that game included an obvious knock on and then a forward pass where Holdsworth (IIRC) just drops it in front of Matty Smith to kick it on. That was given by Ganson when it went to the screen (and before you say it I know you can't go to the screen for a forward pass)

Thought Bentham had a good game tonight in the Sky Huddersfield v Hull KR game. Let the game flow and it was entertaining. Actually thought he wasn't too bad against Saints ( the touch judge awarding a penalty to Saints when Carmont was penalised with Wigan in possession was for me the crucial game changing moment as Saints scored twice in 5 minutes after that, including a 50/50 video ref call for Meli's try). The controversial decisions/calls were again by the video ref - very difficult and either might have been judged to be a penalty try. On balance, though, knock-on for 1st and penalty for 2nd were marginally the correct decisions!

Let's just pray that Ganson gives us a fair crack of the whip tomorow ...!!

Since when?

I dabbled a bit with refereeing a few years ago and every referee in my society had a favourite team and most went to games as supporters when not officiating - a few of those people are now officials within SL and Championship level at present.

Not to say they are biased, but to detach an initial love of watching the game and / or an individual team as one of the reasons why they ultimately become referees in the first place is way wide of the mark and idealistic at best.

What a complete goon, refereeing a game is the hardest thing to do, you need the eyes of a fly to see everything! All referee, no matter what level they officiate at, have a favourite team. people become ref's because they ant to be part of the game, not to be bias!
now do me a favour and go and follow wendyball, for all our sakes!