7 Apr: SL: Catalans Dragons v Wigan Warriors KO 5.15pm (UK Time) (TV)

[winnyason]

5 minutes ago, latchford albion said:

Did Thornley ever contribute more to a Wigan win when he played for them?

He should have sang the team song what a performance 

[IM2]

4 hours ago, GeordieSaint said:

Haha that was ridiculous. Farrell and O’Loughlin all over him impeding the ball carrier and hegives a knock on. That’s what infuriates non-Wigan fans; blatant interference.

especially given the camera looked at it over and over again. just admit you got it wrong. very poor decision.

ref for me was way too trigger happy & seemed to have one eye on Catalan the whole game. The laying on was as bad by wigan. Oloughlan does it all the time. he spends an age on the deck. 

i dont support either side but i thought the ref had a big influence on the game

[IM2]

3 hours ago, M j M said:

This isn't a Wigan problem it's an RFL refereeing one. Since Catalan have been in SL they have sufferred from English referees who have consistently given disproportionate penalty counts and failed to interact properly with the French players, all the while talking to the English players in the normal manner using nicknames and banter. They seem to end up assuming the worst of players they don't interact with. That's what drives all the 50/50 calls going one way and is hugely damaging to the game in France, where fans believe their club will never be allowed to achieve any success by the English authorities. This game was an extreme, but hardly isolated, example.

to be honest we have had the same thing at skolars for years. i once went to a meeting with phil bentham and nigel wood at the rfl when we discussed refs over refereeing us and Bentham said "its cos all your lads are ex union players at skolars". wood said phil i cant believe you just said that. Bentham had reffed us 2 times that season. 

[IM2]

3 hours ago, GeordieSaint said:

Catalan didn’t help themselves at times in that half; Wigan should never have been able to score so many tries down that left flank and there was a couple of daft penalties; Moa and Simon spring to mind. But I do agree with MJM; Catalan do seem to be disproportionately penalised by the English refs. 

Well done Wigan though - good comeback.

deft penalties maybe but wigan laid on and left hands on the ball just as much and no penalty. refs have to be consistent

[barnyia]

The Simon yellow card was definitely won by Bateman ! He put himself in a very dangerous position winning the penalty! Simon lifted his legs but not that much! 

[Guest]

Dragons u19’s lost to Wigan 42 v 26 with brochon grabbing 2 tries. First time I’ve seen his(brochon) name in the team for a few weeks. Has he been injured or dropped? Either way he looks like he’s got lots of potential to make it as a professional RL player.

[JohnM]

8 hours ago, IM2 said:

especially given the camera looked at it over and over again. just admit you got it wrong. very poor decision.

ref for me was way too trigger happy & seemed to have one eye on Catalan the whole game. The laying on was as bad by wigan. Oloughlan does it all the time. he spends an age on the deck. 

i dont support either side but i thought the ref had a big influence on the game

However, that is not how it was, or is. Welcome to the club.

I agree though, that the ref had a big influence on the game. You want to know why? It's his job. Someone has to enforce the rules, and going by the stuff posted on here, its a good job its not left to the forum anti-Wigan brigade.

[Guest]

8 hours ago, IM2 said:

especially given the camera looked at it over and over again. just admit you got it wrong. very poor decision.

ref for me was way too trigger happy & seemed to have one eye on Catalan the whole game. The laying on was as bad by wigan. Oloughlan does it all the time. he spends an age on the deck. 

i dont support either side but i thought the ref had a big influence on the game

Bit like in the first half when Bird's leg knocked the ball out of Tomkins hands? No one had a problem with that being a loose carry oddly enough. I wonder if they would have thought the same had it been the other way around, I doubt it!

[Dave T]

Only watched parts of it, but I just dont buy the victim mentality from Catalans. It is a perfect example of where seige mentality can be a real issue for you and ive never liked it. It is a negative mentality and Catalans and their fans have had it from day 1, I suspect because they are isolated and crusaders for the French game they feel it more.

When we start highlighting individual penalties to prove bias it all gets a bit silly.

The club needs a culture review.

[Chronicler of Chiswick]

Could Richard Horne use McNamara's half time team talk as the basis for his at Donny this afternoon?

[BroncoFan]

2 hours ago, walter sobchak said:

Dragons u19’s lost to Wigan 42 v 26 with brochon grabbing 2 tries. First time I’ve seen his(brochon) name in the team for a few weeks. Has he been injured or dropped? Either way he looks like he’s got lots of potential to make it as a professional RL player.

He has an amazing ability to beat defenders and makes it look easy.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Emosi Koloto said:

He has an amazing ability to beat defenders and makes it look easy.

Indeed. Was playing fullback yesterday I believe but also plays on the wing. 

[Hvy wg]

You can say Thornley was bad (he was) but don't forget Gigot hurt his right arm when Sutton hit him late. Gigot didn't complete a one on one tackle for the last part of the game because he couldn't. He spent that time stuck to Thornley, meaning Iain was supposed to bodyguard him. 

McNamara should have sent Gigot to the bench.

[Chris22]

I haven't seen the game so can only provide a limited comment, but if you are winning by 19 points within around 30 minutes remaining, it's hard to blame the referee if you lose.

Positively for Catalans, a few weeks ago they would have been incapable of even building such a lead, so seem to be showing some signs of improvement.

[my missus]

3 hours ago, Dave T said:

Only watched parts of it, but I just dont buy the victim mentality from Catalans. It is a perfect example of where seige mentality can be a real issue for you and ive never liked it. It is a negative mentality and Catalans and their fans have had it from day 1, I suspect because they are isolated and crusaders for the French game they feel it more.

When we start highlighting individual penalties to prove bias it all gets a bit silly.

The club needs a culture review.

when a team has got on top to the extent wigan did it is pretty obvious the losing side is going to try all they can to stop that roll, result penalty after penalty.

[Ullman]

15 hours ago, DavidM said:

Actually both happened but the ref had a stern word with him for parking illegally and he moved on 

Then awarded a penalty to Wigan for staying on too long.

[Gates1]

2 hours ago, Hvy wg said:

You can say Thornley was bad (he was) but don't forget Gigot hurt his right arm when Sutton hit him late. Gigot didn't complete a one on one tackle for the last part of the game because he couldn't. He spent that time stuck to Thornley, meaning Iain was supposed to bodyguard him. 

McNamara should have sent Gigot to the bench.

If Smart Price lager did bodyguards! (I'd sooner have Harrison Ford and he's 75 and has probably never set foot on a rugby field!)

On a serious note, agree if Gigot was hurt he needed bringing off.  Stick a back rowers on to shore up and defend the lead.

But again, who appointed McNamara?  Catalan could easily be a serious force in superleague.  If:

They appoint a strong, top quality coach (and let him do his job unintererfered with).

Allow him to change the culture.

Stop wasting huge wages on Aussies wanting a payday in a nice place, use the money instead improving the base standard across the team (ie replace the worse players like Thornley)

Develop a solid squad with a good culture and then add in a few 'big stars'.  I'm obviously biased but their is no better example of this then Powell at Cas and comparing his first year recruitment/retention to that of the last two years.

As an aside, I've no doubt in view of the hammering I have giving Thornley, he will, inexplicably, retain his place anfld absolutely beast the Cas side next week with a 3 try performance to lead his side to victory!

[Spidey]

5 hours ago, Dave T said:

Only watched parts of it, but I just dont buy the victim mentality from Catalans. It is a perfect example of where seige mentality can be a real issue for you and ive never liked it. It is a negative mentality and Catalans and their fans have had it from day 1, I suspect because they are isolated and crusaders for the French game they feel it more.

When we start highlighting individual penalties to prove bias it all gets a bit silly.

The club needs a culture review.

The first half they looked a completely different team. Good structure, throwing the ball around and dominating Wigan. I was quite impressed, I genuinely thought they’d turned a corner. 

I was disappointed with the reffereeing in the second half, it just seemed to favour Wigan which I think led Catalans back into their ill disciplined mode and couldn’t get any ball

[Southerner80]

5 hours ago, Hvy wg said:

You can say Thornley was bad (he was) but don't forget Gigot hurt his right arm when Sutton hit him late. Gigot didn't complete a one on one tackle for the last part of the game because he couldn't. He spent that time stuck to Thornley, meaning Iain was supposed to bodyguard him. 

McNamara should have sent Gigot to the bench.

Thanks for this - makes a bit of sense of what happened.  Mcnamara should have one back on the bench maybe to cover for these situations? 

Gigot has also of heart so won't willingly come off -Coach should have brought him off as defensively soft tries towards the end and it makes sense now.

Overall although a loss Cats look much better than 4 games ago.... Gigot and Langi are pairing well. Team has a spine now. I can see Cats winning at least 5 of the next 13 if not 6 and that will put them in with good shot of top 3 in the 8s. 

I would like to see Da Costa given a go ahead of Aiton for a game  and some of the young French forwards given a outing too.   Cats looked towards the end of this game to be physically undone by Wigan and the fact Cats have the oldest pack in SL has to be a factor in this.

[Exiled Wiganer]

I agree with a lot of the above. My abiding memories are of a superb Cats performance for 50 minutes which bodes very well, a superb Wigan second half (and there have been many of those this year), with Lockers absolutely world class. Where did that pass come from? We may well have won, but the referee absolutely caned Catalans. It was virtually impossible to work out what they were doing wrong at times. They genuinely deserve better. Oh, and Powell is a horrible player. 

[Father Ted]

Didn't  Thornley cop a knock and end up limping around? It was mentioned in commentary.  The responsibilty for Gigot and Thornley staying out there was McNamara's. He messed up yet again and allowed Wigan a staggering come back.  Repeat of 2007 at Odsal. 

 

[my missus]

a myth is building around this, the penalty count was 14-8 to catalan i think wigan were awarded 7 to catalans 2 in the second half only one was in my opinion a bit dodgy. catalan were just poor after 60mins and got what they deserved, beaten.

[Dave T]

1 minute ago, my missus said:

a myth is building around this, the penalty count was 14-8 to catalan i think wigan were awarded 7 to catalans 2 in the second half only one was in my opinion a bit dodgy. catalan were just poor after 60mins and got what they deserved, beaten.

So it was 12 v 1 in favour of Catalans in the first half?

Hardly suggest victimisation.

These complaints when you have won a penalty count 14 v8 are odd.

[JohnM]

Anyone know how refs are assessed? I may be wrong but I thought each team submitted a report, plus the refs performance was reviewed by the RFL each game.

[IM2]

9 minutes ago, my missus said:

a myth is building around this, the penalty count was 14-8 to catalan i think wigan were awarded 7 to catalans 2 in the second half only one was in my opinion a bit dodgy. catalan were just poor after 60mins and got what they deserved, beaten.

Its not that the penalties shouldnt have been given its the fact that most penalties are fine lines especially laying on and hand in etc. it just seemed at a really important time the ref kept giving wigan massive momentum by awarding them and not doing the same for Catalan.