Poor form from an ex Saints lad. He's gone native to Thugby League.



And worse still he was a late switch to my fantasy team so that will cost me.

Normally I would agree with you re the Ah Van incident, however I think with the new concussion rules in place this season, referees will have to send players off who attack the head and cause a player to get concussion.



Reason being is that under the new rules as I recall being described on Sky, it appears players have to leave the field for 15 minutes to be assessed.

If this is the case and all the offending player got was a stiff telling off from the ref, then players would be instructed to smack high profile players to get them out of the game.



As far as the Matty Smith kick. I thought a sin binning was right, it was petulant but not downright thuggery.

Joel Tomkins should however pick up a one match ban for running in and attacking a player.

So we're agreed than? Should've been a red?





And lol at anyone defending Ah Van's smash to the face. Good lord, imagine if that had been Hock.





Poor from Wigan for too many spells - too many errors and Williams needs to develop his attacking play (I'm sure he will, these things take time), but more crucially very well played Widnes, impressed me with their physicality and general play. And congrats on the events today and good crowd.

Yeah he should you're right. You probably know being a Saints fan that he's not the type to do that at all and he will be embarrassed by it.



Also agree on Joel Tomkins, he gets wound up and involved far too easily. I thought Union and one of his brothers leaving would've calmed him down but he oversteps the line too often. But he's nothing compared to Gaz Hock, at least he seemingly possesses a brain.

Ah Van's was a yellow at the very most. High shot, but seen alot worse get off with just a penalty! Funny how it's mainly Wigan fans that see it differently. Smith's yellow for chuckin' the teddy out was probably the right decision, but given the red that was dished out earlier I would say his offence was worse therefore more worthy of a red. You can't go round booting people when things don't go your way.



Wigan had the extra man, most of the decisions and even resorted to some mild thuggery. So well done Widnes, you deserved the point...if not 2.

As a leeds fan, I liked what I saw from that Wigan performance.



They should have had that game sewn up easily, looked like they were running away with it at the start



But the wigan players are so intent on being the big bad they react to everything, try to throw their weight about try to niggle and lose their discipline. Farrell has a push and a shove at every play the ball, Tomkins dives in at the slightest provocation. The pack doesn't just want to beat the opposition they want to dominate and bully the opposition pack but when they can't they seem to forget about winning and concentrate on their own personal battles.



Inability to keep a lid on it has cost them dearly in their last two games.

Worst ref in the comp, every game with him is stop start.

There is always a high tackle that gets penalised with a red card at the very start of the season, take Matty Bowen's much worst clothesline on Scott Grix in last year's season opener, that was a red card remember.......oh wait......

The RFL is always looking for match officials. If anybody thinks they can do a better job then contact the RFL.

Impossible to be a ref so far as some fans are concerned. Send one off? Ludicrous, mad, ridiculous etc. Don't send another off? Ludicrous, mad, ridiculous etc. Cannot win.



Ah Van wasn't really being malicious but here's the thing, if you take a heavy and reckless swing and end up stiff-arming a player to the jaw and knocking him out then you risk getting sent off. The old chestnut "he's not that type of player" doesn't really help. Paddy deliberately had a swing and took the risk. It didn't pay off. If he hadn't connected then he wouldn't have been sent off but rightly the consequences of fould play have a bearing. He put Charnley out of the game.



Smith was petulant and embarrassing, but it was hardly a full-blooded kick, he made contact and the player just sort of skipped over it. I would have put it on report as it probably is worth a match ban but it was pathetic rather than much else.



Tomkins running in and pushing a man onto his arris is hardly a big deal. Players run in too much and this game had too many handbags but if you send off every player that comes running in and pushes another player then that would be half the teams.



Some of you have completely lost perspective.

to lash out and kick someone like that should be, and is, a red card.

I don't rate child, if you watch as soon as he blows he turns his back. he misses anything that happens after he blows. that's amateurish and should have been rectified long ago. its basics.

his touch judges gave him no help whatsoever though. they were dreadful

Every game counts this year.....what odds on more reds and yellows this year than a ver before?

are they still only paying ~£30k?



If so, that explains why you don't get high calibre individuals willing to give up their career to do the job for a few years.

Ah Van is a red card. Intent is irrelevant if you swing your arm and connect with the head.



If Smith pushes Hanbury rather than kicks out nothing would get said, there's an element of provocation but the reaction is poor. Easier call to give yellow at that stage of the game, disciplinary can have another look now can they not?



Tomkins idiotic and unnecessary, deserves a couple of games.



A lot of players performed much worse than the ref did IMO.

For me, both incidents were worthy of a yellow card. Ah van you can see wasn't deliberate or malicious i don't believe so yellow would of been fair. Same with smith, petulant but a sending off? really? not for me. I can see why ah van did get a red however in the laws of the game, but interpretation is by individual i guess.



It's a sad indication of the psyche of the rugby league supporter at the moment as a general consensus is to just bag the ref. All I saw on twitter last night was new era, same refs bla bla bla and then 7 pages of moaning about how bad refs are. We should be focusing on what an excellent game it was, a great skill level we had and great fightback, yet people are only interested in moaning about the ref. Why has rugby league become so cynical?



People are getting incredulous at the Refs already, 1 game in. Give it a rest man and enjoy the game. As seen by this thread the events are interpreted differently all the time, which was what happened last night. If the Ref misses a knock on, foot in touch etc and carries on they should be accountable but for the making split second opinion based decisions there has to be understanding and reasoning, which it seems for most RL fans blind outrage has overtaken.



It has snowballed to the point that people genuinely believe in a red hall conspiracy, or that the reason their team lost was because of the ref. Forget about the missed tackles, dropped balls and stupid players making bad decisions - it's the ref's fault. It's embarrassing.



PS - who keep's feeding Joel Tomkins skittles.

Pretty much my stance on it too.



Ah Van should've gone. It wasn't deliberate by any means, it was wreckless, clocked Charnley directly on the noggin (& ended his game).



Smith - at that point in the game, it didn't really matter if it was yellow or red. The disciplinary will deal with him & Tomkins. If the kick out was earlier in the game, it's a red for me - no room for that in our game.



Certainly doesn't help when the 20-man strong commentary team on Sky spend so much time questioning decisions. What other sports broadcasts have to bring in an ex-ref just to stop the commentary team flying off on one incorrectly after a decision?

Good post, Wigan's performance was certainly worse than the ref's.

Playing against 12 men and with a decent lead, what were they doing, give your collective heads a shake

You know you're having a bad game when Robert Hicks has to come onto the pitch to tell you how to do your job.

and nobody was playing the ball properly either

A trip was always deemed as instant dismissal because if players were allowed to bring others down in that way the game of rugby would be not be possible.

When I coached schoolboys it was one of the first things that was explained to them.

Apart from the claim that it is for "most" RL fans, I'd say that was pretty much spot on. If you'd said "most fans on social media" then you'd be right. And yes, it's embarrassing.



Because I like to watch the rugby, not sit there with a notebook and keyboard, desperate for some perceived refereeing error to salivate about, I actually enjoyed the match very much, it was very physical, and Widnes did great to claw their way to a draw, plenty of emotion, and incident, plenty of commitment and passion. Unless you believe that all officials must be impossibly 100% perfect at all times in all they do, the officials did fine, as ever there were decisions you can say you disagree with or things you think they missed but they are human and so are you, the fact you're on a forum doesn't mean you're right and the ref was wrong. It is great to discuss and analyse but unhealthy and a bit weird to obsess. A lot on here are waaaaaaay on the wrong side of that line.

Was looking forward to the opening night but now so sad that all we are talking about all the ref.That idiot should never have been elavated to the pro game. The fans in East hull don,t want him near Craven park.

I think the reason people bag the ref so much is because it's all the 'commentators' do throughout the ENTIRE match. Why even have Cummings in the studio? He is there because the refereeing decisions are all they talk about and it drives me crazy.

Every once in a while Eddie will make a feeble attempt to actually call the game, before Stevo or one of the other numpties will chime in about some foul play that deserved to be a penalty.



It's the first game of the season and I'm already fed up of them. I can't wait for the NRL season to start so I can actually watch some rugby matches where the commentators just call the game in front of them.

I actually don't think Child got those 2 incidents wrong. In previous years the Ah Van sending off would never have been a red but this is 2015 and with the new rules I don't think Child had any other option.

His overall performance though was shocking, and his officiating of the ruck was especially poor. It also seems that every game he's involved in boils over and he loses complete control of it, and it's clear to me the players don't respect him.



Anyway, enough about the ref and back to the RL, and well played Widnes on a great result. It was an entertaining start to the season, and the overall quality was better than the majority of opening games seen in the last few years.

Wigan were generally poor, and despite all the physical brovado from the likes of Clubb, Bateman, and the 'Polynesian with the ponytail' their pack wasn't up to much, which taking the game in isolation is worrying for them because on paper Widnes have one of the weaker packs in the competition and they managed to handle Wigan quite well overall.

Before Cummings was in the studio, it was still always talk of the referees, nothing has changed and reason they are talked about is because they are so incompetant!

I decided not to renew my SKY sports package this year due to the fact that watching SL is shocking, one game in and all the talk is about the ref, it's a joke! I nearly talked myself round into purchasing it again yesterday, glad I didnt! Watched it a friends house and I wont be rushing round to watch many more game. Roll on the NRL!