Harold Rigby Jnr wrote:
The game is going to pot.
The amount of feigning injury, simulation, acting, diving all to con the referee last night was appalling. It is turning into association football before our eyes.
I didn't watch the game last night, however i agree with your comments re feigning injury to con the ref or to slow the play down. It is, as you say, like the RL equivalent of soccer players diving/simulation to get free kicks and penalties and has sadly crept into our game over the last 2-3 seasons, in particular. You see RL players indicating they are injured, play stops for ages, and then they get up and start running around like nothing ever happened, and then go into another heavy contact a few seconds later. Defenders get a breather and the attacking team loses momentum. We all know how tough RL is so i would expect,
more often than not, that an injured player would have to leave the field for a while, at least. These guys take strong contact regularly but when you have taken a knock requiring treatment they shouldn't be running about straight away like some players i have seen in recent seasons. Refs have a duty to get assistance to injured players, particularly those having sustained head injuries, or who claim to have, and this whole situation is difficult for them when it comes to identifying those feigning such an injury. They have to exercise caution at all times and rightly so. However, any player who holds his head claiming they have a head injury
of any kind has to be given medical attention straight away. But it must then be
mandatory that they leave the field of play asap and then not return for at least 30 minutes of playing time, and in that time be further checked by a doctor who makes the final decision if it is safe for them to continue. Certainly in the case of a suspected head injury they should not be allowed to get up a minute later and tell the ref they are okay to carry on playing.
