Not sure if thats sarcastic, but am watching again having just got in

I did remember some argy bargy early on, plus there was the tread on Azza's ankle, then the minor blow up later in the second half that Elima (of course) got involved in. I thought generally their discipline was terrible tonight and played rit into our hands

I did think that might have been our best defensive showing of the year (was the Menzies no try their only crossing of the line?) and if we can keep that up, who knows. We may need to score a few tries too though.

You see, I don't think it was a great performance. Sure, we defended well, but we were aided in this by Catalans' utterly clueless attack. Their structures are even worse than ours - two passes along the line then an inside ball to a forward. We could have defended that all night.

There was plenty of effort and determination in our performance, but we invited them into our 20 with ball in hand far too often. If we give Hudds/Wire/Leeds that number of opportunities, it'll be an embarrassing scoreline in their favour. The team deserve credit for getting through, but a significant improvement is needed if we are to be competitive next week.

Not read any previous posts.

Outstanding defence won you the game and all credit for that!
I can't honestly understand how you got away with constantly messing around in the tackle and slowing the play down. Laying on, hands on the ball etc you would be pulled up at least twice in every set if you where playing in the NRL but those tactics helped you win the game, not great for us neutrals to watch though.

A deserved win tonight for you boys. It showed that lessons were learned from the Wembley defeat especially with the kicking game ( on the floor rather than in the air) and again great defence.



Mind you Danny Houghton . Is he ever onside?

A very good performance typical of or season in a lot of ways - hard graft, grinding the opposition down, riding a bit of luck, not quite clicking in attack, a moment or two of brilliance.

You've answered your own question. He's very good defensively and can tackle as hard has anyone on the pitch, but he never runs with the ball.
Not getting tackled in the last two games is not an indication of how elusive he is.
It shows that he never attempts to get past a defender, unlike the other 16 playing.

Lots of people do difficult jobs. The vast majority of them to a better standard than SL officials. Of course fans' view of a refs performance is coloured by their allegiance but there are some errors that would stand out anyway. I'm just as critical of performances when watching as a neutral. Maybe me and your dad simply have higher expectations, or are less inclined to appear 'right on' by not criticising the ref.


He did miss stuff for both sides, but made significantly more errors that benefitted Catalan. Some of that will be because we spent more time defending but some were just rank poor decisions. IMO it was a contributory factor in our lack of field position all night and in particular in the second half. However, if you take a look back at my posts during the game I make many more negative comments about our players than about Thaler. You - like a fair few others - fall into the trap of thinking that criticism of the ref must mean that the ref is being blamed for the performance, when in fact it's perfectly possible for officials and players to all be crap at the same time.

Fans of every sport criticise the officials. It's as futile when Premier League supporters do it as is it when you do. People are human. They make mistakes. Or even interpret things differently. How many times do you see the Sky pundits split about whether a decision was correct or not? Or even groups of fans, neutral and partisan alike? The fact is, that all the time we employ human beings to referee games, there will be differences of opinion about whether a decision is correct, just as there will be outright mistakes.



What an odd idea. I'm not sure why it could be considered 'right on' not to spend significant portions of just about every game bleating about officials. Maybe you and my dad are just obstreperous old buggers with nowt better to do?







Of course he did. In your eyes. I'm sure plenty of non-Hull FC fans will have seen it rather differently.




It really wasn't. Other than the Elima swan dive, I'm struggling to think of a single one that couldn't have gone either way.



On the contrary, my dear fellow, I've fallen into no such trap. I've only fallen into the trap of noticing that you seem to criticise officials with a greater frequency than many others, and that you make assertions along the lines of 'he made significantly more mistakes that benefitted (insert name of opposition here)' without thinking that perhaps your club bias is colouring that view.

Crookes being tackled in the air is another that springs to mind. And the lack of penalties for offside defending their line compared to us getting pinged for the same. Or the ridiculous 'obstruction' called on Yeaman.

Also, I'm not sure of the relevance of whether a decision could have gone 'either way'. I'm not suggesting bias, merely incompetence.


Two reasons why I may criticise officials with greater frequency that others:
1. I watch the majority of games on TV, which allows close-up and repeated views of mistakes by both players and officials.
2. I loathe incompetence. Can't stand it. And I'm particularly infuriated when that incompetence has zero consequences for the offender and is repeated week after week after week.

Hmmm. The inconsistencies are extremely frustrating; the Crookes tackle was a penalty everyday of the week and Yeamo's obstruction didn't to me, look like anything of the sort.

Didn't see the Crookes one. The Yeaman 'obstruction' happened at speed and in back play. How many times have you called something in real time, then looked at a replay and seen you've got it wrong? Officials are human, and mistakes will happen.



The relevance is that many decisions are open to interpretation. There were loads of occasions last night where we held the player down or messed about in the ruck and [ididn't[/i get pinged for it. That's because it's up to the official to decide when it becomes too much, and the Catalans fans might (arguably quite rightly) have felt aggrieved that we weren't punished more often.



I can't think of too many instances where an official is 'incompetent' per se. There are high profile examples (Ganson at Manchester, for instance), but many of the 'mistakes' fans complain about aren't 'mistakes' at all, merely an interpretation of the rules that differs from their own. That's not to say that officials don't make errors, sometimes inexplicably, but I don't think the standard of officiating overall is any worse than any other professional sport. There are far, far bigger problems in our game than referees.

Ah. And there we have the fundamental disconnect that means we're never going to agree on this topic.

Not saying there aren't moments when I wonder how the hell they've reached a particular decision, but I've yet to hear a single convincing argument to the end that SL officials are any worse than officials in any other sport.

The only other pro sport I watch regularly nowadays is Cricket, which is impossible to compare. Although I'm not that impressed with Umpires either.

But it doesn't really matter. I don't care how good the officials are in sports that I don't watch.

I came to RL in the 80's from watching Soccer and Union mainly. The poor quality of the officiating hit me right away.

Every week in football, there'll be at least two - usually more - managers complaining about how the officials have wronged their team. RU is even worse in that the rules are so needlessly complicated that literally any interpretation could be correct or incorrect. The point is though, that if standards of refereeing are just as 'poor' in other sports, maybe that's just the nature of the beast, and all sports fans have to accept that human beings make errors.

Are you watching Wire vs Leeds?

Shocking decision. If you don't see red for blind-siding an opposition player with a punch right in front of the referee, what exactly do you have to do to get sent off?

Child is an example of someone promoted way beyond his ability. Together with Roby he simply isn't SL standard. Has no idea how to control a game.

He's bottled that, pure and simple. Can't say he didn't see it, and there's absolutely no excuse for Briers to still be on the pitch.

Thing for me regarding the Catalan Match.. Gentle said in the paper that he was taking things back to basics regarding our defense and approach to the attacking side.

Our defense never let a try in despite many drop outs and plays within our 20.

Many say that Catalan never threw much at us, but me personally i feel our defense shut anything down early before they could.

Are the players not learning the set plays which Gentle trying to teach??

Plus anyone get the deja vu feeling.. Knocked catalan out challenge cup - got to final..

Knock catalan out play offs - Grand Final??

Steady now. However,if we come up against Wire and do the same you may have a point.

If the players still haven't got his plays after nearly 2 years either he's completely useless at getting his message across or his plays are too complex for anyone to understand. Either way he needs to sort it out. I also see no real evidence we are trying any set plays

Or the players are too stupid to understand?

Quick to judge Gentle.. But he can only teach, the players need to learn.

Regarding Set Plays, the players have tried some from the scrum and off penalties of which ive seen this season.