He didn't repeatedly threaten them though did he. There was the handbags after Wire's first try whitch were caused by Toronto in the first place, embarrassing when their player claimed he was bitten but conveniently didn't want to make a formal complaint.

Poor discipline seems to be trait of Paul Rowley coached teams.

All this Paul Rowley stuff is rubbish, I can understand that under certain coaches teams may be told to be more aggressive and lay on longer and that can result in more penalties given away but blaming Paul Rowley for his players lack of control is absurd. I highly doubt he told Dixon to punch Livett, Kay to make that tackle, McCrone and Lussick to backchat etc. It all started with Ashton Sims, that fired the players up and Toronto lost control, starting to give away silly penalties. But there’s no doubt they felt aggrieved by the referee. They got nothing all game and if Dixon is sent off then how is Goodwin not at least in the bin. I’m personally not even sure Dixon’s punch was bad enough for a sending off and Goodwins neck throw was almost as bad. Sin binning players also isn’t going to calm it down and gain their respect. Paul Rowley had nothing to do with his teams poor discipline and lack of control.

He started being lenient with both teams starting early with not taking action on Sims’. He could have blown the whistle more often but tried to keep the game flowing. He gave warnings to both teams, Warrington listened while Toronto didn’t and paid the consequences.
Kay was clumsy, Dixon was stupid and the captain, who should know better, was arrogant.

You can make as many excuses and diversions as you can think of but Toronto got what their indiscipline deserved.

Agree 100%

Whilst he was coach at Leigh their discipline was also horrible and almost a mirror image of his Toronto side

Some coincidence there

But Leigh were the same under his management. Bradford's first game in the Championship, away at Leigh, saw an abundance of sin binnings on both sides, because Bradford allowed themselves to be sucked in playing the game that way and ended up losing. However, when the two sides met later in the season, Leigh's attempts at trying to niggle were ignored by Bradford and Rowley's team had no response to a team who refused to go down the ill-discipline route.

I agree Toronto were excellent in the 1st half, they played some fantastic rugby. If they’d have kept 13 players on the field they may have even gone on to win the game.

This will be a big lesson for Toronto, their discipline must improve and if will come the middle 8’s, when Toronto will gain promotion playing the type of rugby they played in the 1st 40 minuets.

You're a Leeds fan so I fully understand your support of Thaler.

He's a terrible ref and should have been stood down some time ago.

He's on about the ex-Leythers in the team.(e.g Josh McCrone, Darcy Lussick)!!

I said the same at the time, the difference being Warrington didn't get sucked in and Hull did.
Saying that, the referee was actually doing something about the Toronto foul play. He ignored it or did nothing about it at Fev, so Hull will have felt they had to go into business for themselves. Warrington were adequately protected by the ref.

Just seen the sending off incident. Not wanting to advocate players belting each other all the time, but I do think the sending off was harsh. Two blokes squared up, one got a shot off . It's not like a stiff arm or a cheap shot from the blind side. The game has a reputation for being tough and I think it's in danger of becoming a bit too soft for its own good. If two blokes squaring up warrants a red card, the. There judiciary are going to be very busy going forward.

he punched him....duh

you can't do punching

punching is banned

its the wrong sport

dunno what you're all bitching about, toronto were gash, they stunk the place out on national TV with arrogant indiscipline not seen since Leigh came up.
they ruined the event, made RL look like a 2 bit amateur pub game played by a bunch of drunks, they're a ******* disgrace.

Out ?...you betcha they're out and thank **** for that

You Sir win the prize for the most dumbest post of the year.

They have no connection with Leigh anymore you muppet, thats why they left.

You really are a next level of stupid

It wont, Rowley is the coach.

Take it from someone who has seen this previously.

Learn the rules.

And why were the Warrington players running in? Because Toronto kept starting scuffles. He warned both sides and only one side calmed down and spoke to the ref with respect. The professional side. Toronto were an embarrassment today so pop your dummy back in and stop defending such shoddy sportsmanship.

I think the incidents leading up to the red card played a massive part. Toronto were fired up and starting at every opportunity. A red seemed harsh but the law is it is a red. You'd have seen a yellow there if the game was clean from Toronto up to that point.

Toronto didn't cover themselves in glory today, but neither did Ben Thaler. There was a lot of talk about referees 'losing control' after the Featherstone and Hull game and I think today again you saw a referee out of his depth. The first half hour was atrocious from a discipline perspective. Toronto came with a gameplan to be rough and tough and throw it around and see what happened. Warrington were just as aggressive and if anything worse from a disciplinary perspective up to the incident under the sticks. How many hair pulls were there on Kaye and Simms before that? Three or four at least and there were countless flops and swinging arms on tackled players, ridiculous sledging and chest-beating and Thaler did very little about it.

Then the incident under the post happens. There were a few punches thrown in that as well, just too many bodies around for them to connect. Thaler clearly got really flustered by that and for me the game turned, not on the red card, but on what Thaler did then. He broke it up and tells Hill to take his players back to the half way line and he'll talk to him then. Hill makes a flippant comment, brushes past him and starts it again, sledging and pushing and shoving. If anyone is talking about pub league rugby and pub league behaviour, that was it. What does Thaler do? Absolutely nothing, not a thing, just tells him really nervously not to do it again, which again is met with a flippant comment and backchat.

Fast forward to the yellow, just ridiculously harsh. No malice in that at all, Thaler all riled up against Toronto for some reason. The red comes up and Thaler is itching to send him off, cannot wait. That whole incident was ridiculous. The Warrington player has no right to kick it off after the play the ball, initial penalty should be Toronto's. They square up, Warrington player takes a huge risk and butts head with him. The punch was the weakest, feeblest connection there has ever been and it's now a red? For me that sets a huge precedent now, ANY punch is now an automatic red card, because he was being held by two men and it was no more than a slight push to the face. Red card is given and a string of penalties go Warrington's way. All penalties you could give technically, but absolutely none of them had any context in the game, they weren't gaining an advantage from it, he was just punishing any slight indiscretion because he had a major bag on about Toronto. He was ignoring the same minor indiscretions from Warrington. It was unprofessional and embarrassing from him as much as the Toronto team.

McCrone as Captain is entitled to question the referee. Nothing he said was anywhere near as disrespectful as what Hill said or did. All he said was it's a two way street, you've given us nothing and you're not treating us with respect. All completely true. Thaler was like my Mum when I was 6 there, unwilling to talk like an adult should, just sent me to my room without listening to anything, hiding behind the sanctity of being my Mum. I'm all for ref's being respected, but they've got to keep their side of the bargain.

At the end of the day Warrington were going to have the quality to win that game. Thaler, whether in panic or determination not to have another Fev v Hull 'on his watch' was deliberately refereeing one side differently to the other. Serious questions need to be asked at the end of the season about the refereeing as there are so many inconsistencies and too many times when referees are influencing games.

Delusional.

Thought Thaler dealt with it all well. It isn’t he fault the players lost the plot.

Saddened that's your most ridiculous post of all time - and that's saying something. Utter, utter tripe.

So how many people got sent off from the scuffle under the sticks?

None. Due to nobody throwing a punch or doing anything to warrant a card of any colour.

I can’t beleive I’m saying this but I agree with some of what Saddened said.

Given thalers yellow of their captain (which I don’t have a problem with) Hill should have had the same after Warrington’s first try (which incidentally was a clear obstruction).

Toronto’s discipline was appalling and they deserved what they got however Warrington were hardly angels and the penalties and cards seemed a bit one sided.

I thought the ref had a good game and dealt with Toronto in the manner warranted.

Typical Paul Rowley coached side , thinking your dogs b0ll0x in the championship to unravelling at an alarming rate against a disciplined professional Super League outfit.

Rowley and his band of muppets need to open their eyes and see they are a Championship team at best and Super League is a pipe dream for most of that squad.
McCrone's argument with Thaler was laughable and to hear Rowley bleating at the end proved what bad losers he and his team are.

If they do manage to achieve SL at the end of the season most of their current squad will be off loaded, and back in the Championship where they belong.

I'm with the majority of sensible, non-delusional posters, who lay the blame for that fiasco squarely at Toronto's feet; they were amateurish thugs with no intention of playing the game properly - a mirror image of Leigh under Rowley; flat-track bullies at Championship level, and chippy when they can't get their own way against a professional outfit.

I actually thought Thaler handled them very well - and the RFL should be taking action against Featherstone and Toronto for denigrating the competition; we get very few opportunities to showcase the sport on FTA TV, and both sides have seriously damaged the image of the sport and the CC.

On a side note - if you're the guy who ploughed millions into the Toronto experiment, wouldn't you be dragging Rowley and his morons into the office this morning and giving them the rounds of the kitchen? I know I would.