What is this incident you speak off, and surely you cannot condone the actions of mr tompkins in flicking the "v"s and while were at it abusing a touch judge to the point of being intimidating.

Come on Leeds fans surely you are better than this?



Met some really decent Leeds fans yesterday and I don't approve of Tomkins "V" sign (should face RL and internal disciplinary action) but threads like this really are sad ..... don't support the other England players because of the behaviour of ST?

Wembley is going to look pretty empty regardless of any boycott. Also, people have short memories, so this will all have blown over by next week.



There should be more respect for officials and a proper and strong no tolerance policy introduced for back chat and the like. That said it is not surprising that fans and players get frustrated by wrong decisions and the lack of any acknowledgement from the RFL that they are wrong. There will always be mistakes when under pressure, especially in a high speed game, and this should be respected but why can't such mistakes at least be admitted or acknowledged? Maybe it would be cold comfort after the event, but better than just having to accept it without question. Referees and the head of referees should be far more accountable and far more open which ought to give fans and players a much better insight into how and why decisions are taken, and ought to lead to an improvement in standards.



For example, most people thought there was a spear tackle yesterday, but the ref didn't give it. So why can't this be explained? Did he not see it clearly it? Did he see it differently? Would he have changed his decision with the benefit of hindisght seeing it again? I'm not suggesting every minor decision is scrutinsed just what appear to be the major ones. Just a bit of explanation, even to see say he got it wrong would make us and the players respect them far far more.

So you won't support England because someone may have made a V sign.



Sad. Very sad.

Re-read the thread again ... This time concentrating on 'Abuse Of Match Officials' and come back to us

I agree what Tompkins did was stupid and shows disrespect for the Leeds fans, but it's not like our own players have never done something equally stupid.



Sorry but boycott him from the England team, now that is stupid. He is a damn good player and deserves his position in the team. Let red hall handle him with some form of dicplinery as they see fit. A fine, maybe a one or two match suspension and official apology will be sufficient in my opinion.

Therein lies part of the issue ... When was the last time a player (of any team) missed a major final as the result of an RFL suspension ?



The fact is the governing body of the sport at times behaves like a 3rd world banana republic.



The crux of the issue is what is an appropriate punishment ?



But don't be surprised if a warning and a £250 'slap on the wrist' isn't deemed by some people as sufficent ....

You miss the point ... I'm not suggesting he's dropped from the England team, but if the RFL don't come down and come down hard on him, then don't expect the rest of us to start parting with hard earned cash to 'support' him when he is picked.

Pathetic Leeds fans. This is why RL in this country is pathetic because of fans like you.



What about Bailey headbutting our under20s winger? everyone seems to be avoiding that issue here.

So what would you "consider" to be a fair punishment?

Sounds reasonable to me actually.



Its probably not his fault that he is a daft, arrogant kid and he could do much worse than look to Iestyn Harris for inspiration, a player of similar prestigious skills who managed to alienate most clubs supporters, even the clubs he had played for

but who to the best of my recollection never once let a crowd play mind games with him during a match.



Indeed if I were his coach I'd be rather alarmed that a player in my team was so badly affected by one incident in one game that several months later he is still refering to it in every press interview he does and is apparently still so wound up about it that he's risking a disrepute charge to respond to a crowd who probably had nothing to do with the original incident.



Its just a good job that there's no danger that the England team will play in Australia any time soon because we all know how that would end in tears before bedtime.

How about Sine Die for the rest of the season / play offs and a heavy four figure fine might focus a few minds ?



Available for the internationals, but his team suffer for his actions.



He might think twice next time.



This is only part of the problem. Match Officials should have a purge on back chat (especially from non-Captains) and perhaps repeated incidents of normal back chat during any game should have the player concerned kicking their heels the following week ?



The antics of the player in question were far in excess of the normal back chat you see during games in the regular season. Referees have gone soft on dealing with it.