I agree, I think the refs are actually fairly decent.



The problem is the fans who love to complain about anything and everything. Even when their views are obviously wrong or biased, however, a large part of it is ignorance on the fans part which is large. If more people got themselves on a refereeing course or coaching course they may actually understand the rules properly and realise that the refs aren't all that bad.



Of course they get some calls wrong, some big ones too, but if anybody has ever tried refereeing a RL game (which I'm sure 99% of the moaners haven't) they would realise how hard it is. On the whole I think the refs do a good job but Rugby League fans just love to moan and be negative at every turn, nothing like a victim complex eh?

Player passes ball, hands facing backwards, ball drifts clearly forward in mid air......... cue clueless fans ''FORWARDDDDDDD, BOOOOOOOOOO, THE REFS BENT, ITS THE RFL, THEY LOVE THE BIG 4, BLAH BLAH BLAH''.



You go on any board after a defeat, and you can guarantee they'll be a thread kicking off about the ref.

Precisely.

Except London broncos board that is........it's hard to blame the ref when your average loss is down to shipping 50 points a game!

Some sets of fans do seem to be worse for it. Wakefield and huddersfield fans (not based on the recent incident) have always steemed to be quite abit worse for it, with sintellins fans the least guilty IMO.

I agree. I've done a tiny bit of reffing at very informal friendly kids games and it really does bring home how much the refs have to do and how many times you're effectively taking either an educated guess or sometimes a complete guess at what happened.



I do think there are ways that the refereeing can be improved, such things as a 2 refs system, more full time refs, better training and development for refs, better pay for refs etc



But that would require more money for the RFL to spend. Something which certain club chairmen aren't keen on.

As a Chelsea fan I know what it's like to have a manager who scares refs so much that most refs are naturally scared to give decisions against us. That accounts for the more decisions going for us than going against us.



But there are also referees who have pretty much gone out of their way to screw us over (Graham poll and Chris Foy). There has also been times when we weren't the bigger side and the referees were clearly influenced by who the bigger side were (nearly every time we've faced Barca).



As a Leeds Rhinos fan, I thought that Bentham was pretty blatant in the last quarter of the game in displaying his bias towards the bigger club. If Saints had been the ones who took that drop goal, I'm not totally convinced that he'd have been ruling it out.



On the drop goal, I'm undecided. On the pen for interference near the touchline I think the ref was probably right. On the pen for interference under the posts I think the ref was completely wrong. The fact that all three decisions went the way of the bigger club???



On the red card I think the ref was 100% correct. But how many times have we seen refs not sending off players when they've deserved it. Are you sure that a Saints player would have been getting the red card for that, because I'm not.

Bradford fans love a good shout of forward too whenever I've been there!



St Helens fans probably don't because we've got to have a good old moan at our team over the past few years, I'm sure every club has their sections, but ours has been somewhat deflected after the come down from success!

I think complaints about the ref has a near perfect direct correlation with how likely a teams fans thought they were going to win beforehand





I don't think the refs have gotten any worse this year, but the average fans reaction when their team loses a game they thought they could win, it's somehow the refs fault/ the rfl are biased against them (and them specifically) - which is why it seems like there's a thread like this seemingly every week. Maybe it's something to do with the league seeming to matter? But nobody seemingly wants to take any sort of responsibility for their own teams failings



Of course 50:50s can be debated, by the very nature of professional sport there's going to be times where decisions are made on the basis of millimetres - and it's very easy to make a decision when you've watched the replay 50 times and had 3 days to discuss it, look up the relevant rules and draw a conclusion. The judgement phil Bentham made doesn't make him a bad referee.

Maybe not, but I have been provided with an image from the game by a Saints fan with access to secret processing software, this classified piece of kit is capable of "peeling off" the secret RFL cloaking device. Here is the result, from the moment the ref looked atthe drop goal attempt - before and after processing. I think you'll agree with me that Shudds fans have every right to be aggrieved.

I think there is a difference between at the game and then on here.



At the game, if it's marginal, you have to call forwards, it's part of putting pressure on the ref. If they are going to make a mistake you want it in your favour.



That's why the home team 'tend' to do better.



Where there maybe a point is that teams with lower crowds may get less of those calls, because to put it bluntly, the pressure is less.



So at home yes we get more calls than the away team, but on home turf, you should be doing fine or at least 50/50 and if your not then it's down to your side giving away daft penalties.



On here I tend to call it as I see it, without the blinkers on, but if we are just going to keep up the sideline fan reaction on here, then there is no point having a discussion as we will stick to our own party line regardless of what is shown.



For example every huddersfield fan has seen the non-drop goal, even those who were never there.



But no one has watched boots and all therefore no retraction of the OTT reactions.