Pathetic.

What is this incident you speak off, and surely you cannot condone the actions of mr tompkins in flicking the "v"s and while were at it abusing a touch judge to the point of being intimidating.

Come on Leeds fans surely you are better than this?

Met some really decent Leeds fans yesterday and I don't approve of Tomkins "V" sign (should face RL and internal disciplinary action) but threads like this really are sad ..... don't support the other England players because of the behaviour of ST?

Wembley is going to look pretty empty regardless of any boycott. Also, people have short memories, so this will all have blown over by next week.

There should be more respect for officials and a proper and strong no tolerance policy introduced for back chat and the like. That said it is not surprising that fans and players get frustrated by wrong decisions and the lack of any acknowledgement from the RFL that they are wrong. There will always be mistakes when under pressure, especially in a high speed game, and this should be respected but why can't such mistakes at least be admitted or acknowledged? Maybe it would be cold comfort after the event, but better than just having to accept it without question. Referees and the head of referees should be far more accountable and far more open which ought to give fans and players a much better insight into how and why decisions are taken, and ought to lead to an improvement in standards.

For example, most people thought there was a spear tackle yesterday, but the ref didn't give it. So why can't this be explained? Did he not see it clearly it? Did he see it differently? Would he have changed his decision with the benefit of hindisght seeing it again? I'm not suggesting every minor decision is scrutinsed just what appear to be the major ones. Just a bit of explanation, even to see say he got it wrong would make us and the players respect them far far more.

So you won't support England because someone may have made a V sign.

Sad. Very sad.

Re-read the thread again ... This time concentrating on 'Abuse Of Match Officials' and come back to us

I agree what Tompkins did was stupid and shows disrespect for the Leeds fans, but it's not like our own players have never done something equally stupid.

Sorry but boycott him from the England team, now that is stupid. He is a damn good player and deserves his position in the team. Let red hall handle him with some form of dicplinery as they see fit. A fine, maybe a one or two match suspension and official apology will be sufficient in my opinion.

Therein lies part of the issue ... When was the last time a player (of any team) missed a major final as the result of an RFL suspension ?

The fact is the governing body of the sport at times behaves like a 3rd world banana republic.

The crux of the issue is what is an appropriate punishment ?

But don't be surprised if a warning and a £250 'slap on the wrist' isn't deemed by some people as sufficent ....

You miss the point ... I'm not suggesting he's dropped from the England team, but if the RFL don't come down and come down hard on him, then don't expect the rest of us to start parting with hard earned cash to 'support' him when he is picked.

Pathetic Leeds fans. This is why RL in this country is pathetic because of fans like you.

What about Bailey headbutting our under20s winger? everyone seems to be avoiding that issue here.

So what would you "consider" to be a fair punishment?

Sounds reasonable to me actually.

Its probably not his fault that he is a daft, arrogant kid and he could do much worse than look to Iestyn Harris for inspiration, a player of similar prestigious skills who managed to alienate most clubs supporters, even the clubs he had played for

but who to the best of my recollection never once let a crowd play mind games with him during a match.

Indeed if I were his coach I'd be rather alarmed that a player in my team was so badly affected by one incident in one game that several months later he is still refering to it in every press interview he does and is apparently still so wound up about it that he's risking a disrepute charge to respond to a crowd who probably had nothing to do with the original incident.

Its just a good job that there's no danger that the England team will play in Australia any time soon because we all know how that would end in tears before bedtime.

How about Sine Die for the rest of the season / play offs and a heavy four figure fine might focus a few minds ?

Available for the internationals, but his team suffer for his actions.

He might think twice next time.

This is only part of the problem. Match Officials should have a purge on back chat (especially from non-Captains) and perhaps repeated incidents of normal back chat during any game should have the player concerned kicking their heels the following week ?

The antics of the player in question were far in excess of the normal back chat you see during games in the regular season. Referees have gone soft on dealing with it.

I'd be the one thinking twice about whether I wanted to watch the professional game again if that were the case.

As for abuse of match officials, the RFL need do nothing more but to ask those officials to take the necessary reaction to such abuse, a tool that has always been at their own disposal.

What we are seeing here is the sad side of a kid who undoubtedly is a Super League superstar already. What he needs, from whoever does become Wigan head coach next year is a word in the ear to calm down and dont let the arrogance take over from the undoubted talent. As for boycotting England, or whatever, that's just daft.
At the end of the day, for all his little annoyances, he is currently the best talent in English RL in his position, and we definitely need him on form and in the side against the Aussies and Kiwis come the autumn.

Everyone is "avoiding the issue" because it never happened.

You are jumping onto a claim that a twitter message appeared sometime last night that has now mysteriously disappeared, if you spend the rest of your life frothing at the mouth over what some kid has posted on Twitter then your life is going to be a complete waste of time.

Go do something useful.

Yup.

Same point applies AdmiralHanson

But you're right. If you can't support ALL England players, you shouldn't go.

Don't need 'fans' like you there.

Nah ...I prefer to still boo him

cant wait for next seasons fixture list,my trip home will be timed to the Wigan home game.I think the whole ground will erupt everytime he gets a touch,very reminisant of when Cantona came back to E R.

Who is this Tompkins fella? Seems to have a lot of heat on these here forums. Must say, I didn't see anyone with that name listed in the team sheets I got in my programme

your late with that one its been pointed out about maguire/McGuire Tompkins/Tomkins.Do keep up

Whoa whoa whoa there Dave mate!!!

The graphic you are using as an avatar is a picture I had commissioned a few years ago which cost me money and although it isn't copywritten I do own the intellectual property rights on it which cost me more money.

Not really appreciating you ripping it off.

Anyone else notice the irony in this comment?



As for boycotting the 4 Nations, this just highlights the problem in our game and why players will always be tempted to leave RL to play on a bigger stage.

Quote ="AdmiralHanson"At least the incident is being 'invetigated' : news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 695413.stm But frankly folks, we all know what the standards of an RFL investigation are and increasingly, Red Hall has been acting like some Third World Banana Republic (after all, when was any player of any colour last suspended for a cup final / grand final ? Thus, giving abolustely no incentive to behave). Does anyone realistically think that someone on (one would suspect) a salary in excess of a hundred thousand per year be bothered by couple of hundred pounds 'slap on the wrist' by the RFL ? Much has been made by the booing of him at the Exiles game (and whilst I didn't partake of it myself, I can understand the reactions towards him, given his penalty-milking antics across Northern England) but it is worthwhile considering that Leeds fans seem to have been blamed for the booing, most of the regular Leeds fans were in their regular places in the South Stand and thus, you'd expect the noise to come from the regular places (e.g the back etc.) ... It didn't and from what I could see, most of the noise was coming from down the front and sides, where there were groups of (amongst others) Cas and Hull (both sets) fans. To label it a Leeds problem only is laughable. And, given the supposed respect campaign towards match officials, check out the reaction of Sam Tompkins towards Rob Hicks after the scoring of the last Ryan Hall try at Wembley ... [uA flurry of screaming abuse towards someone doing their job to the best of their abilities. [/u Both these incidents of behaviour are not acceptable and should not be tolerated. Interestingly, in Aussie Rules (a game noted for its biff once-upon-a-time), they used to double the length of bans for trouble during showpiece occasions, but don't expect anything as forward thinking from the RFL. Brining me on to my main point, in a couple of weeks time, Leeds fans will be asked by the RFL to unite behind the odious Sam Tompkins and his slightly less odious brother Joel kick-a-man-on-the-ground Tompkins as if nothing has happend. Well folks, if you support this idea, things could be different this year and perhaps force the RFL's hand in to taking some serious action against these sort of antics. Do not dismiss 'fan power' and power of the pounds in Leeds fans pockets. After all, why do you think the Exiles game was played at Leeds and heavily pluged to Leeds fans in an attempt to get them to turn up ? I would estimate that at some internationals that Leeds fans make up some 20% - 25% of the fans attended. Take those levels of fans away and it going to hit the RFL in somewhere where they will finally start to take notice ... Their back pockets. I would suggest that the Four Nations runs on margins where a 20% drop in projected revenue is going to make a serious difference. So, what can you do ? I know some of you will have got tickets for the England games already and that's fair enough .... But for those of you that haven't and were thinking of going, do you really want to pay your hard earned cash towards someone that shows that level of contempt towards you ? Is Sam Tompkins worthy of representing this nation on the back of those sort of antics and abuse towards match officials ? The ball is very much in the RFL's court and if they fail to deal with this matter, then our response is to not support the 'national' team. You might also want to consider boycotting England shirts and merchandise (they don't look very good anyway) and / or withdrawing your email address and details from RFL mailing lists. Wembley is going to look very big and very empty without the thousands of Leeds fans that otherwise would be there .... And let's see the RFL try and fill it with Wigan 'bandwaggoners' and Hunslet fans etc. They need us down there far more than we need them (you could always watch the national side getting hammered on Sky, if you're that interested)'" yet another pre menstural post on this thread the underlined section ,,, really ,, no other team or player does this get a grip of yourself

Quote ="AdmiralHanson"At least the incident is being 'invetigated' : news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 695413.stm But frankly folks, we all know what the standards of an RFL investigation are and increasingly, Red Hall has been acting like some Third World Banana Republic (after all, when was any player of any colour last suspended for a cup final / grand final ? Thus, giving abolustely no incentive to behave). Does anyone realistically think that someone on (one would suspect) a salary in excess of a hundred thousand per year be bothered by couple of hundred pounds 'slap on the wrist' by the RFL ? Much has been made by the booing of him at the Exiles game (and whilst I didn't partake of it myself, I can understand the reactions towards him, given his penalty-milking antics across Northern England) but it is worthwhile considering that Leeds fans seem to have been blamed for the booing, most of the regular Leeds fans were in their regular places in the South Stand and thus, you'd expect the noise to come from the regular places (e.g the back etc.) ... It didn't and from what I could see, most of the noise was coming from down the front and sides, where there were groups of (amongst others) Cas and Hull (both sets) fans. To label it a Leeds problem only is laughable. And, given the supposed respect campaign towards match officials, check out the reaction of Sam Tompkins towards Rob Hicks after the scoring of the last Ryan Hall try at Wembley ... [uA flurry of screaming abuse towards someone doing their job to the best of their abilities. [/u Both these incidents of behaviour are not acceptable and should not be tolerated. Interestingly, in Aussie Rules (a game noted for its biff once-upon-a-time), they used to double the length of bans for trouble during showpiece occasions, but don't expect anything as forward thinking from the RFL. Brining me on to my main point, in a couple of weeks time, Leeds fans will be asked by the RFL to unite behind the odious Sam Tompkins and his slightly less odious brother Joel kick-a-man-on-the-ground Tompkins as if nothing has happend. Well folks, if you support this idea, things could be different this year and perhaps force the RFL's hand in to taking some serious action against these sort of antics. Do not dismiss 'fan power' and power of the pounds in Leeds fans pockets. After all, why do you think the Exiles game was played at Leeds and heavily pluged to Leeds fans in an attempt to get them to turn up ? I would estimate that at some internationals that Leeds fans make up some 20% - 25% of the fans attended. Take those levels of fans away and it going to hit the RFL in somewhere where they will finally start to take notice ... Their back pockets. I would suggest that the Four Nations runs on margins where a 20% drop in projected revenue is going to make a serious difference. So, what can you do ? I know some of you will have got tickets for the England games already and that's fair enough .... But for those of you that haven't and were thinking of going, do you really want to pay your hard earned cash towards someone that shows that level of contempt towards you ? Is Sam Tompkins worthy of representing this nation on the back of those sort of antics and abuse towards match officials ? The ball is very much in the RFL's court and if they fail to deal with this matter, then our response is to not support the 'national' team. You might also want to consider boycotting England shirts and merchandise (they don't look very good anyway) and / or withdrawing your email address and details from RFL mailing lists. Wembley is going to look very big and very empty without the thousands of Leeds fans that otherwise would be there .... And let's see the RFL try and fill it with Wigan 'bandwaggoners' and Hunslet fans etc. They need us down there far more than we need them (you could always watch the national side getting hammered on Sky, if you're that interested)'" yet another pre menstural post on this thread the underlined section ,,, really ,, no other team or player does this get a grip of yourself