People were discussing the ref, so I gave my opinion. He's a poor referee and he had a very poor game. He made incorrect decisions that could easily have decided the game. More than that, as I mentioned he's just not a confident and capable enough person to be in that position in the first place. You go on about his handling of the flare ups, but as I mentioned he didn't handle them. He was criticised and abused by O'Loughlin, laughed at by Wilkin. He was very lucky there that it was half time or it would have been chaos. You didn't even read what I put as you came back with points I made myself.

Is there a need for officials? There was little need for Hicks in the derby, as apart from the penalty call and forward pass decisions that he got wrong he barely made a decision all night. He didn't have any faith in his own decision making and was referring everything upstairs, no matter how blatant it was. He was going upstairs in case he was wrong and not because he was unsighted, which is wrong. In big games like that you need a referee who is able to confidently make a decison. One of the main reasons for the atmosphere was his lack of control of the 10 and play the ball. I'd love to sit in with the head of refereeing and review the game, asking what he thought of the multiple occasions he couldn't see the play the ball happen because there were players in the defensive line stood in front of him.

Your point about the players isn't valid either. It's professional sport, their reputation, earnings, careers are on the line. There is no time to be nice and play within the rules, you have to do everything to create an advantage for your team. You can't expect them to referee the game themselves. As I said, it's not an easy job, but they need to be doing more to ensure the people they put into the system are of a high enough calibre. Some of those in Super League currently clearly are not. I've seen referees capable of controlling amateur games played by reckless and violent types hell bent on fighting and do a more confident and professional job than Hicks managed.

The only blatant thing about that penalty was that Roby had his hand on the ball = interference.

I thought Hicks did alright considering it was the first big game of his career.

Wilkin is Saints' captain and so is the one player who can discuss decisions with the ref. He was right to complain on a couple of occasions, like when a Wigan player led with the elbow straight into I think it was Percival's face. Another ref would have penalised that. Hicks just ignored it. Likewise with the dangerous tackle made on LMS, for which O'Loughlin has received a formal caution in this week's disciplinary report. There were a few incidents by Wigan that should have been penalised but weren't. Had they been, that high tackle on Vea at the end of the first half might not have resulted in the handbags. But maybe Hicks will learn how you control that kind of game for the future: let too many dirty plays go and the aggrieved team will take matters into their own hands.

In another post it came across as condoning players not playing to the rules, and now it appears that dirty play by players is going a similar way.
It's not the match officials who are at fault. They are not the ones causing the problems in th 1st place.

Also, it seems that many look at a game, but very few watch it.