Have to disagree.



Smith thoroughly deserved his sending off for verbally abusing an official, regardless of how bad the referee was.



The players' respect for officials is something our game should be proud of and must maintain.



Other players (eg. Sinfield, Graham et al) getting away with it in other games doesn't justify it.



Smith should apologise (to the ref and his team-mates), take his punishment and learn a lesson.

Nope.



Nope.

Alibert.

I don't doubt that, but lets just make it one rule if you're not the captain or the player in question and you talk to the Ref then or if foul and abusive language is used, you'll get 10 minutes in the bin and then let the RFL decide the punishment on Tuesday evenings.

Grab yourself a lolly-pop, that's the gezzer.

Best ref in SL at present, according to a thread elsewhere on RLFans that I read recently.

(but I wouldn't necessary expect James Rowley to agree?!

)

[Double post

I just reckon some referees would, on occasion, still let it slide. Then there's also the issue of words that aren't strictly foul nor abusive but are deeply damaging to the integrity of referees: such as [icheat[/i. It's a difficult issue to get a consistent, uniform method of dealing with.

I reckon some of the French players and (Welsh) could get away with murder when it comes to dissent, we don't know what Smith said, one mans foul and abusive language is another mans Shakespeare. Some of the students I work with use the F word in normal conversation, it is used in their homes and as such it is part of their vocabulary no matter how many times we pull them up for it.

Worst referee ever, still hate him with a passion, one of the happiest days of my life when it was announced he was retiring and couldnt penalise us to death anymore so many matches he ruined our chances in because he got personal and didnt give us a fair crack.

I believe Steve Blakeley would agree with you.

Up against Russell Smith & the Connolly bros, that's some statement





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