After watching the game on Friday night it was clear that the Leeds players were more interested in talking to the ref than playing the game. This slowly creeping in and when he pulled Mcguire to one side to have a word with him he specifically said this is the forth time I'm doing this. If that is the case shouldn't players be binned or sent off? I really don't want this game to go the way of football. Hopefully the RFL will start doing something about it.

They did the same last time we played them, just after Penny scored.

The refs are becoming weak to this.

I'm sick of seeing it. It's been in the game for a few years now, I remember James Graham clearly shouting "F off you F'ing c***" with proper anger at Thierry Alibert. A number of Leeds players used to be at it a lot when McLennan was coach. And STomkins does it a fair bit.

The other night when Maguire shouted something at the ref and then he took Maguire and Sinfield to one side and Maguire said "it's not about you, you know"...he should have said "right, son, ten minutes, don't speak to me like that".

Yet the refs just ignore a lot of it.

It needs clamping down on big time, for me.

It's an odd development. Unlike in football, we as fans would all be delighted to see players from every team panned for this- marched ten to start with, then binned for further and a red for Hock-style manhandling. Of course, it would have to be done consistently.

However, referees seem to want to make excuses for players. Cummings always manages to find a reason to laugh it off, as does Silverwood. Thaler and Child tend to ignore it - which is better, but insufficient.

Nothing has been done since the days of Cunningham,Wellans,Long and Sculthorpe.. They were pioneers of it..

The game of Rugby League could do something about this if it really wanted to. It would be doing the whole of society a big favour. We sell our game that it shows discipline and self control but I'm afraid standards are now low. You rarely see the referee tapping his lips and marching an extra ten yards ... and then another ten as the player fails to shut up. Refs. still have the power but they are failing us. They need to be told to get a grip of the game. You can't beat a bit of immediate and effective discipline ... the players would learn like a shot.
I can remember our PE teacher (many years back) during a lesson marching us back in six stages of ten yards as we "complained" about a decision. It's stuck with me for ever.
It can be done ... we need to bring self control and discipline back onto our game.

Yes agree with this.
The clubs need to instill in players the way to behave on a rugby pitch - unlike football.

Only in exceptional circumstances should anyone other than the captain be able to talk back to the ref. Otherwise 10 yard pen, or for Maguire type persistence - 10mins in the bin.
Surrounding the ref - yellow card
Touching or grabbing the ref - red card

Graham type swearing at the ref - multiple game ban.

I'm proud of RL's reputation compared the those who play the round ball.
Standards have slipped bu they are recoverable.

I agree, it is something that the refs need to sort out. But there is another way of looking at it though; when I played the game and it happened, I always interpreted it as the player(s) getting flustered and losing control. For me that was all the encouragement I needed to hit them even faster and harder in the tackle, and to force more errors out of them. By acting like Mags last week, they are simply doing our job for us.

This is a bit of a grey area. You have the likes of Gareth Hock that knocked over Thaler I think it was, got a ban.

Few years ago he grabbed Ian Smith's arm, got a straight red.

Then you have a fews weeks ago where Luke Gale looked like he purposely walked into the ref (Thaler again) yet nothing was said or done.

Don't understand why refs allow this abuse
The NRL again lead by example as was in the incident with James Graham and David Klemmer
Both banned for 3 matches for abusive language and crowding the ref
Graham got an extra match for (foul play) mmm bit suspicious
But the NRL like aussies are take no S H one T
Klemmer even got the bin (although there was only 1 minute left)
Is anyone listening at HQ? Hello?

Can we add to this the 'milking' of penalties, feigning injury and digging the studs into the turf and pushing forward at the PTB to create 'interference'.

Refs MUST bring the whistle to their gobs, and run 10 metres.
If players do it twice in a half. sin bin....

If teams start to concede tries/lose games as a result, I don't think you need to be Mystic Meg to work out what the coaches will tell their players what to do.

Ironic, when you consider who is in charge of referees.

The NRL don't always lead by example. Two weeks ago for instance, Henry Perenara, Gavin Reynolds and Matt Cecchin ballsed up by calling for a turnover after Wests only completed FIVE tackles, this was about 2 minutes from the end of the game when they were 2 points down.

Tony Archers comes out, says it was a bum call and that he can't guarantee that they will have a job for the following week. Fast forward a week, Perenara and Cecchin are reffing Melbourne Storm against (can't remember who it was).

When Alibert fluffed up and gave us 7 tackles when we scored against Wakey, he got dropped immediately.

The thing with the NRL is their head of refereeing is Tony Archer. That kind of explains it all really.

March them 10 and if they persist...sin bin....couple of weeks of that and it would stop.

Not rocket science.

Yes and yes. Certainly to the first two.

Every single time Sam Tomkins was tackled after Maguire became coach of Wigan he tried to make it look like he was being held down when more than often he wasn't at all.
Ian Henderson goes down with "cramp" every time Catalans have to defend another set after a penalty or knock on.

It goes against the ethics of our sport. I don't like it. It's very 'football'-like. I'm an association football fan but I can't stand the cheating and soft-lad aspects of the sport. RL is my antithesis fix to football, the ethics of the sport is what originally drew my attention to RL a few decades ago. I don't want this sport to start on a path the wrong way...

Apart from some will say "the ref ruined the match, its a mans game not tiddlewinks".... and other assorted garbage

Surely shinymcshine, most posters, and I agree, are advocating that the referees should be clamping down on un-manlike behaviour it's that which is starting to ruin games?

I agree, and really wish they'd clamp down on it too, but remember too the furore that was caused when Sam Tompkins and Gareth Hock (to name but two) were sent off on occasions for speaking out of turn.

When at the game, if he'd have sin-binned McGuire I'd have been quite frustrated (like most of the Leeds crowd).....having watched the match back though and been able to hear his comments then I would fully agree with McGuire getting a yellow card, and think Child actually made himself look very poor by not giving him a binning (or at least a severe "this is your last warning" talking to)

I wrote to the RFL with exactly the same point.

It's really not rocket science.