Re: IS RUGBY LEAGUE GOING TOO SOFT? : Wed Sep 13, 2017 10:50 am
The Sykes yellow was soft IMO. However i think it's a case of referees not handling situations correctly rather than the game going soft. We had a thread on here the other week about Greg Birds spear tackle that most thought should have been a red, and only got a yellow. We were talking about the Sykes incident on our board and thought the yellow was harsh, but said we're still owed plenty from the game at theirs earlier in the season. The referees allowed out and out thuggery in that game. Joe Keyes had a shoulder charge to the head that knocked him unconscious and was forced to miss the next week too due to the severity of it, yet the officials thought it was absolutely fine. Same game, our full back carried ball over dead ball line. He was then picked up and hurled into some metal barriers. A resulting fight ensued and referee decided sin-binning a man from either side was the correct call. As i said, i don't think it's a case of the game going soft, the referees seem to be struggling to get these decisions right.As we have a shortage of referees, we're getting some who aren't ready and getting stuff wrong. , Spear tackles, canon ball tackles, shoulder charges to the head going unpunished yet they seem quite keen to sin-bin players when they hurt their neck, no matter what the actions of the tackler actually were (see Dean Hadley case) Not easy being a referee and they will get stuff wrong in a split decision (e.g. Liam Watts incident) but there's too many cards being shown to incidents that are nothing, and no action being taken against acts of thuggery,
One last point, next season i want a clamp-down (automatic sin-binning) for goading, rubbing peoples heads, screaming in their faces. Sick of it this season.
