Jon Wilkin slams ‘nonsense’ referee decisions following St Helens’ loss at Warrington Wolves

Sky Sports pundit Jon Wilkin has blasted the officials following a number of key decisions which went against St Helens during their 32-18 defeat at Warrington Wolves on Thursday night.

Saints, who have now lost seven successive games against Warrington, trailed 16-14 come half-time at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, paying the price for a lack of conversions.

In the second half, they were only able to score one try to the Wolves’ three, and ended up on the wrong side of what ended up a heavy defeat.

There were a number of contentious calls which went the hosts’ way in the second half, and it’s those decisions which Wilkin opted to home in on post-match.

Jon Wilkin slams ‘nonsense’ referee decisions following St Helens’ loss at Warrington Wolves

At the very top of Saints’ list of complaints was that centre Mark Percival had appeared to be pulled back by Matty Ashton as he attempted to race on to and ground a grubber kick.

Percival was denied a hat-trick as his foot was on the dead-ball line when he eventually put the ball down, but the tugging on his shirt was ignored by video referee Tom Grant.

Post-match, Wilkin – who played over 400 games in the Red V during his own career – said: “They (Saints) got a lot of things wrong and didn’t help themselves in the first half, it was self inflicted.

“But they were on the bad side of luck and the bad side of a lot of calls… wow, did they get punished by the referee tonight!

“The fact Mark Percival doesn’t get the ball down but got pulled back. It’s a penalty. (Lewis) Murphy being adjudged to have run off (Josh) Thewlis is a nonsense decision. Toby King might have touched that ball in the first half for the Ashton try.

“We bang on about moments matter in games but there was a five-minute period in the second half where St Helens got nothing, and Warrington got everything.

“The game changed on a couple of key decisions, and the video referee missed a clanger (when Percival’s shirt was tugged).”