Should all be cared immediately... Really annoys me, its not as if the ref is going to change his mind and give a free kick for something that happened 10 minutes previous..

Couldn't agree more

I have said it in the past about footballers following the example set by their rugby counterparts and show the referee the same sort of respect

Was a disgrace when they surrounded the ref in the first half, would love to see a ref tell them to fuck off and simply book everyone of them.

what do thery need for the "failing to control your players " charge to be used.. sem to remember we got it for fook all at Bournemouth

Alan Smith would have got booked about 12 times if that was the case.

Should they follow their Union counterparts' example when it comes to eye gouging, biting, stamping, use of fake blood capsules, banned substances and illegal equipment too?

That's not even mentioning the bending and manipulating of the rules by players during matches. Rugby players on the whole are nowhere near as sportsmanlike as footballers. I'm all for better respect towards referees but lets not put the cheating egg chasers on a pedestal.

He got in the face of the ref more times than he touched the ball.

I repeat again £65,000 a week.....

Smith is the biggest conman in English football.

on that money he should have beat Pools all on his own. Laughable state of affairs

Maybe if football refs had the same zero tolerance of backchat that rugby refs have, then the problem wouldn't exist.
Footy refs are their own biggest enemy. If they made it clear that they will not stand for this sort of thing and proved they meant it by shifting a few into the bath, then we might get somewhere.
Fifty years ago, I was playing on the Rec and after ten minutes the ref stopped the game, called me over, gave me the whistle to blow on saying..........that is the one and only time you ref this game, now shut it or you won't be playing never mind reffing.
Yesterday Mr Smith should have got that treatment but the ref didn't have the guts to do it.
simple as.

He made a bit of an idiot of himself Smith yesterday, flailing around like a great yorkshire tit. Even his own team seemed a bit bemused by him, because they were pretty much controlling the game really for long parts. Arguably he was their least influential player.

Yes, if they want to get banned for months on end, as they do in Union. Gouging and biting gets you three months. Stamping is a month.

Not sure what your point is. They get punished for their thuggery? I should think so.

Fact is rugby is a sport played by cheats and thugs, so championing them as superior or as example-setters because they chat nicey nice to the refs is disingenuous.

Nobody is saying that they should follow rugby players by eye gouging etc, just the respect the ref bit.

Every sport has people who try to cheat, bend the rules or try gamesmanship, call it what you like, but when it comes to respecting the officials those who play rugby have got it spot on and show their footballing counterparts up to be the spoilt kids that most of them are.

See that talentless thicket Catermole got Sent Off today for abusing the ref after the final whistle of the also rans derby.

That's the way the clamp down on it. Every bit of dissent book them threatening or bad language send them off it will soon stop.

I wish we had a bunch of players that surrounded the ref, got in face, and influenced him, so that we got a shit load of crap decisions to go our way like what Franchise and Huddersfield do.

Rather than letting the other teams do that to us, like we do now.

Of course I would rather we had refs that sorted it out, but as we dont get refs like that, why shouldnt our players do the same?

Its the only was we will ever get a more even playing field.

Too fooookin soft us.

It should be a case of the referees decision is final, if any player starts harrassing the ref, yellow card immediately. You even see managers giving the 4th official abuse for decisions aswell which is shocking.

Can we have some references and statistics please. I'm trying to recall a game in which there was as much thuggery on display as in the round ball World Cup final in 2010.