If refs gave fewer instructions to the players, we might find the players felt less of a need to return the favour. It might not make for a more watchable game but cut back on the dialogue and you might find the backchat much diminished.

I see that the NRL have taken a hard line stance and are doing what I said to clean up the game - there is uproar as there's around 30 penalties a game at moment and it's ruining the spectacle. I just hope they stick with it and don't bow to pressure (the same media folk who've been hammering the refs for allowing offside/wrestling are now complaining about the number of penalties). They clamped down on playing the ball with the foot and 4 rounds in, that's now sorted, if they stick with it on the offside and wrestle, the players will have to change and the game will be better for it. If they bow to media pressure and stop penalizing it, the players/coaches have won - it's a battle of wills now.

Short term pain for long term gain. I think the NRL should be applauded for it. The only thing I would say is that it shouldn't get to that many penalties, if a team are continually offending, stick someone in the bin, and if it carries on, stick another in the bin. By the time you get to 15 penalties and they've got 2 or 3 in the bin, you wontget above 20 penalties.

You may be right but, the best referees do communicate with players and this way, everyone knows exactly what is expected.
However, it's a fine line and as we see all too often, this can lead to players controlling the ref. on occasion, Kendall seems to be a victim of this.

They just need to be firm,just like you have to be when the kids are playing up.

I agree they need to be firm however I think the best way to do that is to be honest with the players. A lot of times I hear a ref convincingly state that it was a knock on (for instance) to the players yet the replays show it wasn’t. Now I’m not criticising the ref for the decision, a lot of times they have to take a guess, they have no other info to go on, however often the players can see more than the ref and I can only imagine it would be infuriating as a player to have seen an error by the ref and still have the ref be 100% insistent that they are right.
All the ref has to say is something like “it looked like a knock on to me”, some thing that I’ve noticed Union refs do and tbf James Child is doing too, and it defuses that situation. A player can argue with the statement “it was definitely a knock on”. They can’t really argue with “it looked like a knock on to me”.

Not very good coaches make the mistake of treating players like kids and I think refs shouldn’t make the same mistake.

I wasn't advocating treating players like kids, other than making strong firm decisions and clamping down on petulance

Back in the day, coaches like Lindop or Holdsworth would make their decision and then march the players back 10 (or 6), if they dared to question the call.
A bit more of this would instantly stop the amateur reffing that we see from Gale, Tomkins etc

Everyone knows what gale is like but christ what has gotten into Marc sneyd ? Quiet as a mouse at Cas and salford , grade a poop house now with a huge chip on his shoulders, shaul lobbing the ball at players, what is that about?

Bring back Ganson

He's maybe become a bit more competitive now he's at a big club winning major trophies?
An exquisite winning drop goal this afty.

Good. Presumed you'd left him in Oz for the last month.

Wasn't happy about been dragged down by his neck I guess.
You have Liam Watts playing for you now,get ready to say "What is that about?" a whole load more often.

Connor is doing himself no favours

Connor actually behaved quite well during the hull derby by his standards, just a casual taunt to players and fans alike.

As for Watts, he really needs to let his rugby do the talking. His antics haven't been great at times. But hull are turning into Wigan a little bit in terms of thuggery and play ground antics. Just my opinion.

I tend to agree - but for slightly different reasons; as long as the ref is coaching players, which happens a lot, I think they end up with a mindset that he won't penalise, he'll just shout at me, so I'll crack on.

So - instead of resetting the scrum endless times, telling a player to be quicker in the ruck, or to stay onside - just penalise them relentlessly when they cheat and eventually, it will stop; it isn't the referees role to coach - that should have happened before they take the field.

Someone mentioned the NRL situation - I watched some of those penalty-fest games and whilst I agree it was frustrating, I'm fully behind the approach; if a team keeps being penalised to that extent, they will eventually change their approach - and despite the commentariat moaning about it, I hope they stand firm - and that the RFL follows suit.

Liam Marshall - diver

The whole wigan team are just professional cheats, despicable dispkay by them, if this ys the future of RL he who cheats best wins then we might as well just shut shop now.

Wigan have to be up there with Real Madrid and Barcelona for being the biggest bunch of diving moaning cheats in sport.

They’re like a team of Luis Suarezs and Dani Carvajals.

If this is the future of RL we don’t need to worry about expansion or sponsors or promoters; the game is finished!

Mark Percival ....say no more . Cheat .

I thought he was stiff armed.
It's a surprise that he can still walk after that one.




Of course, this is yet more paranoia by the fans of "small" clubs, all in our imagination.

The blatant play acting and diving needs dealing with now, before we turn, what used to be a tough honest sport into something resembling Italian football of the 80's and 90's.
It may already be too late to reverse the trend.

A few Hull players should be up for BAFTAs from tonight's game.



Edit: it's even spreading to Fev

We've got such a massive grey area. Yes Connor deserved a penalty for getting a swinging arm to the back of the head (first of all,how the hell did the officials miss it), but it's not right to stay down and point at your head until the ref has no choice to review it. This is why in my opinion video refs shouldn't be allowed to call anything other than try or no try. At a non televised game that is play on 1st tackle.

It was a swinging arm, but not at head height. Yes at the level his head was at (in fact a couple of inches higher and he'd have missed completely), but he was pretty low to the ground when he got hit. Penalty probably for intent, but nothing more as he'd have hid his midriff or maybe chest if he'd been fully upright. The on-field ref seemed to be taking a lot of advice/information from the video ref tonight? I've no issue with that tbh, but there needs to be some consistency.

Ah, the Holy Grail

The Faraimo tackle was on a player that was on his knees, which would have been in the midriff if he was fully upright - and got a red card

The position of the ball carrier is completely irrelevant, we saw this in the saints v salford game. The duty of care is with the player making the tackle.

Have you thought that he did that because the referee had been ignoring the dirty stuff and/or simply penalising when it should have been yellow/red previously. Players often try to highlight/make a meal of if you will because the ref was ignoring same despite seeing it/in full view and did nothing. From last night the ref should be brought up for disrepute to the game and failing to protect the players through his and indeed Bentham's actions or lack thereof.