THERE is growing concern about the increasing number of big matches in Super League that are being affected by players being shown red or yellow cards after opponents they have come into contact with stay on the floor, with referees then consulting the video referee to decide whether a card should be issued.
As many people have pointed out, this practice is encouraging players to stay on the floor to force the referee’s hand.
For as long as I can remember we have been proud of the fact that players have refused to copy what happens in football, when a player will writhe on the floor as though he’s been shot when in fact he has suffered only the slightest physical contact, if any at all.
There is a famous saying that I’ve used quite often when giving football supporters one out of many reasons why I prefer Rugby League: “Football players spend 90 minutes pretending to be injured, whereas Rugby League players spend 80 minutes pretending not to be injured.”
But can we still make that claim?
I’m not so sure that it still stands, especially after watching some of our more recent matches.
For me, the most ridiculous example of a player being wrongly sent to the sinbin was St Helens forward Matty Lees in Saturday’s crucial game against Warrington.
Leeds pushed Josh Drinkwater in the back a split second after the Warrington halfback had passed the ball. I couldn’t see any obvious head contact. And yet Drinkwater went down on the floor as though he had been poleaxed.
It’s certainly possible that he suffered an injury that wasn’t obvious to those of us who were looking on and he stayed down for what seemed like several minutes.
The referee Chris Kendall called Lees over and showed him the yellow card, to Lees’ obvious frustration.
We then saw Lees walking off the pitch and asking Drinkwater why he wasn’t also departing the pitch if his injury was as bad as his actions had suggested. It was hard not to sympathise with the St Helens star.
And it was hard not to sympathise with Hull KR on Friday night after they appeared to be dominating Wigan but were stymied by two separate stints in the sinbin for Joe Burgess and Jai Whitbread.
Wigan scored four of their five tries while playing against twelve men for 20 minutes.
On the one hand you have to admire Wigan for being able to take advantage of that disparity in numbers.
And on the other hand, you have to say that the Whitbread decision looked a harsh one as the player whose head he came into contact with appear to ricochet into him.
Sam Burgess has made the point that the injured player should be forced to leave the field when he remains on the floor and he should be deemed to have suffered concussion and would then stand down for eleven days, missing his team’s next game.
I think that’s a very interesting idea.
Meanwhile former referee Richard Silverwood has suggested that unless the referee blows instantly, then the most a player can get is to be put on report, without being sent to the sinbin effectively by the video referee.
It’s interesting that this problem doesn’t seem to arise in the Championship, because of course there are no video referees in that competition.
I’m tempted to say that they don’t know how lucky they are.
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