Erm....because he's the best ref currently?...
Could this this the summer post I've ever read on here after my own?
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There was no doubt these decisions had a significant bearing on the game. Saint's playing catch up, Warrington playing the sets out with an excellent long kicking game. Saints in fact made 50 and 60 yards with the ball each set they played out, Warrington made a lot less. Why water the pitch just before the game? Its not football.
I had to watch the game from home unfortunately and in the tunnel as the players were lining up to go on to the pitch Hicks made a beeline for Chris Hill and had a word in his ear. I thought it strange and showed it to my son. No effort to speak to James Roby so not a captains chat. Wish I could lip read.
As excruciating as it was, I've forced myself to watch it back. As Prez says here, glaring refereeing errors resulted in an 18 point turnaround i.e. 2 perfectly good Saints tries denied and Wire awarded one after a knock on from their winger in the build up. That's quite simply unacceptable, especially in a game of that magnitude. Saints were completely dominant and on top for the first 25 and at 12-0 up, the emphatic Saints victory all were predicting, was nailed on imo. The effect these blatant injustices would have had mentally on both sides is imeasurable. No side would have come back from that, not even one so dominant for 2 years with by far the best attack and defense. It was just too big a mountain to climb, especially in 35 degree heat. Interestingly, by 25 mins or so I only saw us make 3 errors and Wire one or two. The mistakes all came in the second half when heads and the game was gone.
It's like Groundhog Day, as a Saints supporter, suffering heartbreaking defeats in crucial games at the hands of officials. So frustrating but I don't see what we can do about it. I guess just hope that in future we are so dominant even the refs can't beat us.
I still can't believe that, as one of the first sports to use video replays to review decisions during a live game, we have neglected to use it in a showpiece final. It's especially unbelievable when VAR has had so much publicity in the last 18 months owing to it's use at the FiFA World Cup and now the Premier League.
I did wonder if Holbrook or Knowles were going to go all Charlie Austin from last season (for those that haven't seen it the link's below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdTlXEPoEdU
Just calmed down enough to re-watch it and you're summing has saved me the bother.
Exactly what I was just about to post - we absolutely murdered them first 25 mins with repeat sets and errors from the clown with the whistle changed the game.
It's not the whole story as 2nd half we was as bad as I've seen us for a few years - as panic and fatigue set in. But if we was 6 - 10 pts up at that stage we go on to win comfortable IMO
I want to say something rude to Hicks. Is that allowed or will I get locked up?
If it had gone to the VR the outcome would still be the same. There was insufficient evidence to clearly overturn the no try field call.
I await the backlash....however I enjoyed the day pre game mixing among Wire and Saints fans and a few from other regions. Great atmosphere.
What hand? You couldn't see a hand as it was obscured by the ball.
Have the ones complaining about having to catch up at Wembley not heard of or seen the 1996 greatest ever catch up at Wembley , the difference being that Saints had players who could think and change games then.
That’s a try all day long. 3 of the 4 camera angles clearly show knowles grounding the ball. You only have to have downward pressure for it to be a try. We’ll never know but I would like to think that even Thaler would agree and overturn the on field call. One other point is that Hicks new he’d cocked up with the Knowles try as he tried to even up his incompetence by sending the Lineham try up as no try for a petty indiscretion and Thalers explanation as to why he went along with Hicks was laughable.
It is a disgrace how the refereeing body are helping to destroy our wonderful game. How the hell can you send a decision up to the video referee as a try or no try when you never saw what happened. it is a total nonsense. Why not just use the video ref as we used to. Allow him to decide when he views the footage.
Anyway, we never lost because of the refereeing, Warrington had a try disallowed that was a try.