He has always had a problem with discipline, and it's about time cheap shot merchants like him were taken out of the game.

good post

The play was already stopped while Azza received attention. This time could be spent reviewing the SAME evidence that the panel will see on Tuesday from the SAME 6 angles. In three Sky matches over the last week, we've seen three or four incidents that should have resulted in red cards, no questions asked.

It IS a cop out. No matter what our resident 1950's ex-referee says.

This is becoming the biggest problem with the game at the moment.
Scared to send anyone off and if banned by the panel it is the next opponent's who get the benefit.

First time I've had access to the internet since Friday. I agree wholeheartedly with the above. The on-report option gives the refs an easy way out IMO and as a result they've lost their bottle.

he's been charged with a grade D offence

if guilty it's 3-5 games

Quite right too. Hope he gets the full 5.

no EGP on a Grade D is there?

Nope.

Clearly should have walked, Ganson & Smith in the Video box saw the replays and knew he would be certain to get a ban and could have intervened (as the Video ref did on Moa v London). If Elima had gone there would have been no Catalan comeback, yes we got the 2 points but our points for & against column would have been much healthier if it had been dealt with on the pitch.

Spot on.

Unfortunately its not just Thaler who has no balls. They're all looking for the easy way out of making a decision. As others have said its the offending team's next opponents who get the benefit of a ban.

Seconded.

Problem is they do not want off-field officials dealing with discipline. I did exactly that late last season in the championship and the player, whilst sent off, walked away scott free as there was no "relevant" evidence - despite me being stood pitch side as a commissioner within 6 feet of the incident. I was stood down from a game because of this. The incident happened off the ball and wasn't on the video.

Certainly Sam Moa was sent off on video ref intervention - VR's would often say to the ref, its a bad one in their ear, but on this one they have kopped out. Player safety is becoming less paramount in my opinion and that is part of the reason I have not been to a game since.

There's a real lack of consistency in refs that annoys me. In the Moa case the VR was involved but not in this case on Friday night. I seem to recall that there was a similar hit to the Moa one the night before on the TV but a completely different outcome?

Its crazy that a player can be sent to the sin bin for putting his hand on the yet if he makes a direct assault on a player the referees do nothing. In this instance the penalty was for a 'flop' not the deliberate attempt to injure a fellow professional !! It begs belief !!

One of the numerous reasons the game is struggling at junior level is that parents do not want their children to play what is perceived a violent game. When a similar scenario happened in Oz the NRL quickly acted by handing out massive bans and the game was within a season or so cleaned up. The NRL realize the importance of the junior game, recognized the link between violent conduct and falling junior numbers.

When will the penny drop with the idiots at the RL ?

I read the link to your situation a while back, appauling and shame that you no longer want to attend games. As you say the VR intervened on the Moa incident and it's that inconsistency thats as fustrating as anything else or are you saying that there has subsequently been a directive that the VR (off-field official) can no longer intervene? Can the Ref ask the VR for advice on something he has not seen?

No directive that I am aware of, but we should be using the technology for this type of offence. It was (in my opinion) violent play and warranted a red. It is going to take a player getting seriously hurt to prompt a review of this.

Sadly I can see that being true. And no one likes to see a player getting seriously hurt.

Not even Elima

The RFL should change the rules and remove the option to put incidents on report. It's a ridiculous rule anyway as all games are watched back for incidents of foul play and clubs can bring any up themselves. Total cop out option

I hate it when a player is put "on report". How in any way does that benefit the opposition team?! It doesn't, it just benefits the team playing that team the week after?! Surely if a player has done something worthy being put on report then it should be at least worth 10 minutes in the bin?!

Ian Evans the Welsh RU player has just been handed a 12 week ban for a deliberate attempt to injure a player.
Be nice to see the RFL take such a stand.

if they do this should they then look at incidents of foul play as it happens (replay) and have a quiet word with the ref in the earpiece to dismiss the player immediately if its a bad one? that way the player serves part of his punishment against the club he sinned against and not the next 2 or 3 clubs due to face him. if it is not sending off material, they could still invoke the post match disciplinary process

the earpiece thing may already be in covert use, there's no way of knowing

The laws have been tightened up and there is less outright thuggery now than there was in the good old days when "referees were sgt majors" but the powers that be are worried I think about affecting the spectacle of a game if a side lose a player and you get a blow out score. As usual have been weak in defining exactly how and when VR intervention is allowed. Maybe a red card results in that player going off but he can be replaced with a sub? It affects the offending team by giving less rotation but isn't quite as damning if the player is subsequently found not guilty and at least removes the chance of the player in question scoring the winning try/goal etc.