Rugby Refs

[Sam]

Dallaglio didnt even "punch" him, it was more of a tap! The Official Complaint was thrown out because it wasn't Dallaglio's tap that caused Delport's eye to open up it was after the tap that Delport went down crying.

From bbc.co.uk

"He (Delport) had his hand in my face," Dallaglio said. "So I gave him a bit of a slap."

 

[Brovion]

I think a gentle slap from Dallaglio would be the equivalent of a full right-hander from most people!

I think having a Rugby tradition in this country makes us harder or at least more honest footballers. We (the British) don't go around feigning injury like namby-pamby foreigners but we've grown up knowing that there is a sport where they really DO hit each other!

 

[Deportivo Seagull]

Their are a number of reasons that Rugby ref's are treated with respect. Firstly, its bred into you as a young player, you gob off and your off, goodbye thanks for coming ....
Secondly, you can play a reasonable game of footy without a ref, you CANNOT play rugby without a ref, its impossible. The players understand this, no ref ... no game. piss the ref off and he will ref to the n'th degree and effectively kill the game.

Rugby is a very physical full contact game, next time you watch see how many players limp off or go off because of blood injury's. It always made me laugh when Butcher was praised to heavens playing with a cut head for England, in rugby its part and parcel of game. I can remember playing for an Under 16 side and one of our players got his nose broken, trainer (who was a vet !!!) stuck to bits of cotton wool up his nose and sent him back on. Footballers ... big girls ...

You'll always get the occasional punch, the idea for the ref is to assess whether its was premeditated or just a case of instant reaction to a takle etc. The former is a red card, the latter is a warning. BTW southern hemisphere refs are more tolerant than northern hemisphere ref's. Hence the southern hemisphere teams tend to be a bit more free with the fists.

 

[Guinness Boy]

I think you have it in a nutshell here. Rugby is a game where territory is more important than possession. Relatively speaking, possession is more easily won than in football. So in rugby, if you mouth off, you are liable to put an annoying but relatively harmless freekick into kickable range for the oppositions kicker.

I simply don't believe that youngsters playing football are any worse behaved than their rugby playing peers.

If you want referee respect in football (and I think we all do, as it'll make their job a lot easier, less pressurised and hopefully less likely to make mistakes). I think applying a ten yard rule is a good one, and any further abuse should be penalised with a sin bin penalty as suggested on this thread.

Pretty much spot on there. Rugby is a game where territory is all important wheras in football you can score from a goal kick if you luck out. The only difference is the 10 yard advance rule actually means something in Union whereas in football it can actually dis-advantage you so in football maybe you should get the choice of whether to advance or not?

However, one other fact is that Rugby as a pro game is smaller both in Premiership and World Cup. Therefore the cream will probably rise as a ref. Can you imagine how a Martin Johnson or Jonny Wilkinson would deal with a Prosser type ref? Luckily they don't have to as that sort of ref has long been weeded out in RU.