RL has always been streets ahead of football in terms of respect for the ref and playing hard but fair(ish).
However, we are now having to put up with players constantly crowding the ref after penalty decisions and players diving to ground to try and gain penalties.
It's high time that the refs asserted more control and started marching sides back 10 metres

Diving is also becoming more prevalent.

I disagree, the captains can question decisions to a point but if other players mouth off then we still see dissent penalties. Brad Fash gave one away in the Leeds Hull game.

It's nowhere near the level of football.

Tomkins did that much begging for penalties on Sunday I was surprised he didn't come out with a dog and a polystyrene cup.

"Getting more like football" is the question.

although back in the day, you would occasionally see players try and milk a penalty, diving to ground is becoming far more common place, just as players throwing their arms in the air and crowding the ref.

Of course the Captain should be able to ask the ref about particular calls but, last time I looked it was one captain per side.

One of the reasons fro enjoying our sport is the lack of "cheating" but, it really needs clamping down or we will be watching pantomime rather than sport.

With the questioning of the ref by the players, I think it is just a symptom of a lack of consistency in decisions, the players are becoming more and more frustrated with the standard of refereeing in the sport. You can see on a weekend on Twitter that players are always questioning decisions

Any particular game your referring to or is this happening at every game?
Because I haven't see it that much?

(I'm having a little bet with myself here so bear with).

It would be unfair to single any particular team out, as it's becoming common at all games.
Granted some teams do seem "better" at it than others.
The officials are under enough pressure as it is with out players falling down without a finger laid on them and the constant waving of arms. "We" should be above all that and if we dont want to go the way of football, it needs clamping down on.
Some may call it being professional ???

Ridiculous claim, does bending the rules as far as one can get away with happen, absolutely, it's coached into players from kids.this is still far less than soccer.
Do players sometimes show their disagreeance with a decision against them, yes, they aren't robots but agree shouting or speaking out of turn to the ref should be penalised ...ALL the time.
Asking the ref for an explanation if there is doubt is fine or indeed poiting something out, screaming, shouting or being in the face isn't.

The on field captain should show his supposed leadership qualities and tell his own players to step away, that's what a true captain does, they take command of their team (not talking about plays/tactics).
The problem we have is not just the inconsistancy of decision making by refs and the we'll play to the rules for this period but not another but also the lack of direct communication and positive reinforcement.
The ref spends to much time vrrbalising at the ruck/ptb, make the player decide how long, if they don't make best effort to get off after the tackle penalise.remove the looking up to the ref waiting to see how long they can hold down just penalise until the players take the responsibility. That way when players do a good job to allow play to continue without resorting to delaying tactics and then penalty the ref can make a positive comment
This happens in union a lot and is far more effective to get players to behave in a certain way. The refs also explain stuff AND tell the captain he (the ref) won't have players shouting at him on the run or whatever about a decision.

This all stems from the poor leadership at the top, it's yet another reason why the RFLare not fit for purpose. They themselves don't even grasp basic human psychology to enable the officials to run the match better not just for the players and fans but for the officials themselves too.

Catalans were the worse for it last season, this side of the channel Atkins of Warrrington is good and Ratboy of Wigan can put on a good act. Worse one is where there are plenty of hookers picking up the PTB and making contact towards the tackler who is only given a second to roll away. Similar overstepping the marker and playing the ball into the grounded player.

PTBs in general are very messy but it must be really hard to police when the closest official is back with the defensive line.
I'm sure if we had more officials then we'd see the two ref system here straight away. But right now I don't think there are enough and I'm not sure what the rfl are doing (if anything) to try and rectify that problem?

Batley player straight red yesterday for swearing at the TJ

The latter should be deemed unsportsmanlike conduct and the player/team should be warned that do it again and it'll be a penalty against you.

I'm happy for a few games to be penalised to the hilt if it means that coaches and players change their ways, the main reason we have such a messy ptb and 'cheating' or bending of the rules so much is that the officials will ignore minor infractions (like forward passes), this yet further gives the okay to bend the rules a bit more and a bit more.
They have no conviction to apply the laws as they should be ALL the time, if we are to have players behind the try line at the PTB for example then they should be behind the try line, not one foot past the line, nor how it usually is 3-4 metres out everywhere except at the PTB itself. If we want games to flow penalising teams when they break the rules is the best way to get the players to adhere to that and to positively reinforce good play/actions.

It's like the broken window syndrome and ignorance of 'minor' motor traffic infractions, they always lead to more infractions/law breaking beccause people think they can get away with it which has even more dire consequences because of not 'policing' it.

They need to bring the shotclock in for goal line drop outs to stop the faux injuries that miraculously occur to a defender every time a team concedes a gldo. Its gettting ridiculous

The bit about the referee verbalising the ptb too much is spot on. On top of it generalizing the speed at which a tackler should get off it encourages th tackler to stay on until the Call and then they get a second or so on top to move away.
If you don't move directly away then penalty.

Correct, by coming up with rules and stopping the clock it encourages teams to slow it down as they get the clock stopped and they get even longer!

Also, packing down with 5 men, teams do it then ref calls time off and we wait another 20/30 seconds for a player to run 40 yards to a scrum.
If you don't pa k down with the right amount of players, penalty. End of.

All teams do it, we just choose to see the ones that we want.

As for the stepping over the marker etc this time last year we had a clampdown that I agreed with on players stepping over defenders to ptb. This year, nothing!
Players should stand up and ptb immediately and not step over defender or to the side to ptb.
When they step to the side they invariably then penalise defender for not being square.

Diving is becoming a joke. Alex Walmsley is Super League’s Dele “I’m just tricking my opponent” Alli. And for a big guy Fifita is very easy to knock off balance when playing the ball, wonder why?

And the amount of disrespect and swearing at officials, I think, has now overtaken football. All some players seem to do is moan at the ref: Chris Hill, Sam Tomkins, Jon Wilkin, Danny Maguire...

Some of these players would be pretty good at rugby if they started playing it in between all their diving and moaning.

I don't watch a lot of NRL, but would the shotclock still apply if there was an injury? Happy to be corrected but I'm fairly sure the ref would still have to stop the clock in that situation.

Sinfied was recognised for his contribution to refereeing with a golden boot.

A lot of the messy aspects of our game could be fixed real easy with consistent allocation on the rules at all times - no more refs being able to have an interpretation, no dominant/surrender calls, just apply the rules as they are written, every tackle.

Refs should stop 'coaching' during the game. If they're offside, regardless of involved in play or not (by being offside out wide or on the blind side, the attacking team can't go that way), ping them. If defenders don't release the tackled man on the held call, ping them. If the defenders don't release once the tackle has ended on the floor, ping them. If the attacker doesn't regain his feet before placing the ball on the ground to play it, ping them. If they don't play the ball with their foot, ping them.... it's easy. Cleaning up the ruck by making defenders clear immediately will make the game faster, but making the attacker regain his feet and play the ball correctly as per the rules will negate this.

A simple focus on applying the rules literally will make the referees job so much easier and will also bring some of their egos in check. There are a couple who very much enjoy being the centre of attention and the power that they have - if they're there simply to apply the rules without the need for their interpretation, it makes the whole thing much better for everyone.

Draw a line in the sand, accept that we're going to have the pea blown out of the whistle for a fee weeks, but stick with it, it would soon fix itself and we'd have a much better spectacle.

This

Wasn't there a game about 10 years ago where they kind of experimented with this and referee was told to ping every single penalty.
Sure it was a NL1 game and at halftime there were 26/27penalties
2nd half coaches had told them to we eradicate, or they would get pinged and there were 3/4 and the fans said 2nd half was best half of rugby they'd seen.

Both sides were penalised for moving off the mark after a tackled player stepped over a prone defender to ptb in last Sunday's Fev/Swinton game.