Castleford Tigers coach Danny McGuire has doubled down on his criticism of Super League’s match officials – calling some of the decisions that went against his side ‘pathetic’ before calling for the return of old-school officials who had ‘guts’.
The Tigers were beaten in heartbreaking fashion by Wigan on Saturday evening, with a hugely controversial call in the final quarter that saw a captain’s challenge go the Warriors’ way despite Harry Smith appearing to pull back Josh Simm.
McGuire tore into the officials on Sky Sports, saying he felt the standard of refereeing in Super League was ‘getting worse’ – but he would then double down on those claims in his post-match press conference.
The Castleford coach insisted he was fully prepared to receive a fine from the Rugby Football League for his comments, telling the media: “Some of the decisions tonight were pathetic. It’s getting worse.”
McGuire then championed the approach from referees including Richard Silverwood, Steve Ganson and Ian Smith.
“Bring back some of the old guys, Silverwood, Ganson and Smith. At least they had some guts about them. I’m not bothered, they can fine me, I’ll pay them back a pound a week.
“They’re not good enough. It’s consistently not good enough. I’m not bothered.”
Then when asked if he would go through the appropriate channels to express his feelings of frustration, McGuire said: “You don’t hear anything back, you ask questions and they fob you off with pointless answers. It’s a waste of time investing any energy asking about referee calls.”
McGuire also suggested Castleford do not get any ‘home advantage’ in 50-50 calls from his experience.
He said of the Smith-Simm incident: “I’m frustrated with it. Everyone in the whole of the ground can see it’s a penalty. I’m watching something different if it’s not.
“I am going to whinge about the refs because we don’t get anything. We’re playing at home and sometimes you get that home advantage but we don’t.”
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