God, yes, on rugby and its referees. The game has always made a virtue of according superior respect to referees on the pitch than other more popular team sports. So they should, in an inherently violent game, it is vital to respect the referee’s authority rather than fall back on vigilante justice of punching and stamping.
That all goes out of the window at the international level, where coaches and, worse, online fans browbeat and belittle refs, with accusations ranging from naïveté, colonial bias, narcissism to the simple “that teacher hates me”. If fines and coaching box exclusions don’t work, how about cutting the number of replacements they can use?
God, yes, on rugby and its referees. The game has always made a virtue of according superior respect to referees on the pitch than other more popular team sports. So they should, in an inherently violent game, it is vital to respect the referee’s authority rather than fall back on vigilante justice of punching and stamping.
That all goes out of the window at the international level, where coaches and, worse, online fans browbeat and belittle refs, with accusations ranging from naïveté, colonial bias, narcissism to the simple “that teacher hates me”. If fines and coaching box exclusions don’t work, how about cutting the number of replacements they can use?
Thanks Gnasher! The inevitable (regrettable) long term consequence of a shift from an amateur sport to the professional era?