www.independent.co.uk/sport/gene ... 37791.html Or perhaps they need to work on their discipline?

www.independent.co.uk/sport/gene ... 37791.html Or perhaps they need to work on their discipline?

Anecdotally, I have to say that this seems right. At least two of disallowed tries scored by the Cats on Sat seemed legit to me. I've been to Gilbert Brutus a couple of times in the past year and always felt that the rub of the green was against the french side. I'd not thought much of it, but perhaps it's true. Obviously without reading the methodology of the study (by a frenchman it should be noted), it's impossible to say one way or another.

Scandalous. Just goes to highlight another example of how the referees hold Super League back, they really are shocking.

Try being welsh. Only ganson is fair to us in this league. That french ref is the worst in the league too.

I'm surprised, I've seen Toulouse 3 times this season and thought the ref was leaning towards them every time.

I think wales gets more than enough help from the RFL.

So that explains Thierry Alibert's refereeing.

How can someone with no background in the sport possibly evaluate whether refs are biased or not? If you can't know and see all the possible offences being committed, and make an informed judgement as to which are incorrectly missed or incorrectly given, and then make a further judgement as to whether the official has made a genuine error, a subconscious assumption or a conscious decision....



this is a NON STORY. One team will always have the poorest disciplinary record, just as one will always have the worst defensive record. Its nonsense to call it bias if the team happens to be Les Cats.



Take the 'tv makes a difference' line. Chances of the stats being IDENTICAL in tv and non-tv games? TINY. There's no mention of how much difference the tv makes to penalty counts, but it was EITHER going to be better or worse, and this article would have mentioned it as 'proof' (of something, don't know what) regardless. And, despite the utter lack of validity of the comparison in the first place, the conclusions are unsupportable... it suggests the refs are less biased when Les Cats are on tv. Perhaps the players are less dirty? Its as valid a theory.



I don't believe for one second that any of the officials in the RFL are biased against the French team. Or the Welsh team. Or any other team. I think they all give what they see. They may make errors - some howling - but biased? Delivberately giving wrong decisions to favour one side or other? Not a chance.

Anyone who has read the opening chapters of The Forbidden Game will know the French have always hated referees. Even in the early French rugby union days, referees were always the reason a team lost. It must be embedded in French sporting culture, and would explain why our lot always get an escort when they're leaving the field in France.



Looking back, I can sort of understand why Thierry Henry's handball goal was given against Ireland last year.

More likely French players are less adept at "playing the ref" because they don't speak the same language.

I'm Anti-French .... Ray, that is.

Armchair match officials AGAIN