Catalans 40 Salford 40!! Great defence... Salford were 22-0 up! Should be an interesting game next week. When Catalans were coming back into the game, Salford players looked gone but found a way to stop the momentum and come back into it. In the end despite a dodgy Bentham penalty to tie the scores, a draw was probably a fair result.

The draw may be "a fair result" but, he made the wrong call, it should be back to Escare to ptb.

That poor decision could come back to haunt us !!

Refs have gone backwards this year. Not good in a year when we 're introduce relegation and promotion.

We'll need to handle Patterson better than the French did

Salford looked good with ball in hand but, suspect in defence.

It could be another try fest next week !

Every game seems to be down to a ref's poor call,something must be done.Is it down to few ref's in the game?so they get away with poor standards?at the moment they are a laughing stock and an embarrassment to the game.

And these are full time professionals are they not

I think I might have said this a few times.......these blokes who are officiating would never or have been any form of any elite athlete. They are just the blokes who were the last to be picked when it came to picking sides.
This game is played at an electrifying speed that in all honesty we can't imagine. Lots of us have of course played team sports but this level is really far beyond our comprehension.
Just watching Hicks run is funny enough - feet splayed, waddling gait and miles off the the slowest player on the pitch, but apart from that these referees need the same visual awareness, instinctive decision making and acute peripheral vision that the players have got - and thats it they aint got it.
The RFL MUST make some sort of effort to develop and encourage former professionals or young lads who haven't quite made the grade to think about taking the whistle up - blokes who have played and understand the game....and who are not intimidated by tough hard men and these refs clearly are.

Spot on Fergus

Perhaps it's time for some of the ref's assessments to be made public.
Obviously, we could not have a situation where they are publicly hung out to dry but, occasionally an admission of an error
would do no harm at all, especially when is has a direct effect on the result.

Seems a bit contradictory this post! these youngsters' who you are in effect calling them the dregs (for the want of a better expression) only get picked to make up the sides simply because they are not good enough, but then later in your post you are openly encouraging these same young lads' who in your words haven't quite made it, to take up the whistle. Maybe it's because these young lads realise that they don't quite have what it takes to be an elite athlete, and in an attempt to stay involved in the game they love turn to the whistle.
Robert Hicks is far from a favourite of mine too, but as funny as he might look when running to say that he cannot keep up with the slowest player on the field is perhaps somewhat exaggerated to suit your point.
Is there any wonder there is a shortage of officials' when as you allude to our refs being surrounded by 4 or 5 tough hard men trying to intimidate you, surely unless your really dedicated there must be an easier way to earn your money, just a thought on that matter maybe it would help if the RFL supported them more by giving out harsher penalties for these intimidatery tactics.

You missed the point. The lads in the academies/under 19s/ those that have injuries that finish promising careers - these are the ones that don't quite make the grade and the ones that we should be developing into high quality referees. The ones that 'don't get picked' are the ones that were left standing in the muddy puddle during pe lessons !!

Or only got a game cos they had a ball

What about the young players who do not have career finishing injuries, but are deemed not good enough to make the grade?, like the full time one's that are now in charge of SL, who as a rule on the day only upset the losing fans but are good refs' according to the winning team fans', until it's their turn to to lose and blame the ref, but human nature being what it is it won't change.
It would though be interesting to know how you would go about developing an ex elite athlete or an academy player whose career was ended into a high quality referee, good luck with that nobody seems to have mastered that yet, not according to the fans' anyway.

Does anyone know if the shuttle bus still operates between the Trafford centre and the A J Bell stadium on match days.

No, but the 67/100 (Cadishead\Warrington) will take you past, £4 for a day ticket. Never quite understood why anyone paid a fiver for the shuttle bus.

We parked at the airport about 200m past the stadium . Think it was £5 last season. Very easy to get away after the game.

Unlike the poor souls who strayed into the official car park.

This ^^

Only the captain should be allowed to talk to/question the referee and then it should be done with respect.
Officials should have the power and the backing to tell players once to go away, and if they do it again then get them in the bin. I'm sure it would soon stop.

I think the refs we do have make some poor decisions, but until we make it a better place for referees then we are not going to attract more to the game, so we're stuck with the ones we have.

Back in the day Fred Lindop had total respect from the players and if there was any back chat they would be walking back 10 yards.

Even though it shouldn't make the slightest difference, dressing the officials in pink, yellow, green and pale blue make them look like part of a circus act, rather than officials in charge of a game of rugby.

Mind you, as with football, there is certainly more and more "crowding" of the ref in the last couple of seasons and it's time that they used the 10 metres and that they could only be questioned by the respective captains.

A clampdown for a couple of weeks would see an instant change to attitudes.

In-depth discussion aside - that was simply the wrong call and cost Les Cats the game; it's not acceptable when P&R has returned, for a ref to make a basic error like that. I don't like to see players remonstrating with the official, but can you blame them when he's so obviously got it wrong? No help from the TLO or the VR either - pathetic.

I'm amazed how many RL fans have got this decision wrong. Escare knew he was tackled, both his elbows were on the floor and Tommy Lee was lay on him, but he still decided to stupidly get up and make a run for it. It was absolutely the correct decision to penalise him. If had hadn't have heard the call or thought he was tackled fair enough, but that obviously wasn't the case in this instance.

Infact, if it wasn't for stupid decisions Salford would have won the game 42-40 as Josh Griffins legit conversion should have been given, yet it wasn't!

How do you know that?

Because he had both his elbows on the ground and he must have been able to feel a 14 stone plus player crawling all over his back.

It's annoying also when they (Officials) missed a conversion that went over the sticks! End of the day they all even themselves out over the season!