Their No 2 started the fracas with a tackle on Jay. He had not been punished or even spoken to on at least three previous occasions for his tackles and so came to believe he could get away with anything. In rugby the ref is the boss and discipline is the key. The ref knows what a foul is. It’s about time some of rugby’s methods were adopted. Same thing applies to members of the crowd who shout foul and abusive language language at management and staff in front of youngsters in the crowd. Respect and self discipline is sadly missing by some supporters. Did you know that you never have had to even kick a football in your entire life to qualify as a ref.
I have just had a word with myself and found it was like looking for hair growing on the palms of your hands, a waste of time.
We can go on and on about poor officials, but l remember from my playing days, a chap called Colin Barker saying to me, "Don't give a poor ref the chance to make an even poorer decision "
Rollins and Thewlis did exactly that end of story.
Me personally I would like to see a change in who is allowed to approach the ref, this must be IMO the captain's only, it works in Rugby and is a way of making captain's take responsibility for the behaviour of their players.
This also will give the ref an air of authority, but refs need to stop getting into arguments with players.
The above suggestion will stop this from happening as players know that they cannot approach the ref without being instructed too, or a punishment will be handed out.