But that isn't the point. The point is that Roby held him back. That's a professional foul.

If someone makes a break in their own 20 and the supporting player is held back in the first min of a game he will be sin binned?

I doubt it very much.

You can throw constant high shots like Morley and Westwood are doing this year and nothing, yet roby went to the bin when the ball is dead and 80 meters from any scoring opportunity and half the time the red allows the players to get back before the tap anyway.

If a player holds an opposition player back then he is committing a professional foul. Shenton was binned for the same thing, but in a tackle. It is in the stopping an opposition player playing by illegitimate means that makes an action a professional foul. Cheating, in other words. Whether someone gets sinbinned for it or not depends on whether the ref sees it or if he sees it whether he has the balls to comply with the rules. Professional fouls are punishable by sin bins.


You are comparing apples with oranges. Foul play is entirely different to a professional foul, and the punishments are entirely different. So far as I know a player can't be binned for foul play. They are sent off and/or the offended team is awarded a penalty and/or the incident is put on report.

The game has got some strange priorities if slowing down a 20 metre restart is punished more severely than driving and elbow into someones throat, belting someone around the head etc. I hate this 'professional' foul nonsense that gets spouted.

But that is what it is called. It's a professional foul. So far as I'm aware the maximum punishment for a professional foul is ten minutes in the bin, which to me is a punishment appropriate to the 'crime'.

Ok, is holding down and slowing the play the ball a professional foul?

Now you're being silly. You've played the game and apparently you coach it, so you should know what constitutes a professional foul and what does not.

Keep hold of a player's legs too long when they are trying to get up to play the ball and expect 10 in the bin, like Shenny the other week.

Tackle a player and hold him down beyond the ref calling held, or mess about in the tackle, expect a penalty to be awarded to the other side.

Yes I've played the game and yes I coach (better than Royce ) but if a player holds someone down when the ball carrying team is in their own 20 then the ref will give nothing more than a penalty, if the ball Carrying team are on the attack near the defending teams try line then that constitutes a professional foul as its preventing a scoring chance.

Roby commited the foul in wishes in goal when the ball was dead, Widnes had 80 meters to go which clearly isn't preventing a scoring chance. I think a penalty was fair and not a sin bin.

Roby should be smarter,we all know James Child can be pedantic and will blow for most things and will apply the very letter of the law,he should know better hes been around long enough to know the refs.There used to be a ref in the nwc ( a vicar iirc ) who would penalise you for swearing,players adapted their games to it,Roby should of adapted his to Child.

Widnes at the time were chasing the game and allthough well behind the point is still they wanted to get the ball into play quickly and Roby prevented them from doing so,like i said earlier if Saints wanted to get the ball into play and were prevented doing so i would expect a binning.

Roby stopped the fullback from taking a quick tap on the 20, as he was entitled to do. It's otherwise known as cheating and Robes deserved the bin.

In all fairness Child's didn't have a choice. I believe it is written that the minimum punishment for that type of foul play is an immediate Sin Bin.

I agree with SaintsFan.

Correct.

Sin bin is the punishment for such a foul. But if we are to get our priorities right in relative terms - if the punishment for slowing a 20 metre tap down is a sin bin, then a purposeful belt around the head with the forearm should be penalised with a red card, ten match ban and a four week jail sentence.

I'm not saying it shouldn't have been a sin binning as the laws currently stand, I'm stating that the laws are botched. Players are regularly getting attacked to the head every week and nothing gets done about it other than a penalty from time to time. The fact that some acts of foul play have been deemed 'professional' (full of contradictions the usage for that term, but we'd be here all month) shouldn't make a jot of difference as it's blanket term, each incident should be treated on merit by its affect on the game and the players safety.

Definitely a binning, he was a clown.

I wonder, though, whether his binning was a symptom of, rather than the cause of, our capitulation. Maybe he felt the team needed that extra few seconds to set a decent line as he knew Widnes were coming home with a wet sail?

st pete, your just taking the pi$$, i cant believe that anyone who has been involved in RL for so many years does not understand some of the BASIC rules, please tell me your having a laugh.....please

happened a few years ago in the semi wigan v catalan, i think stacey jones tapped a ball going for a wigan 20 meter restart and got the yellow, you do it and the ref see's it then it has to be a sin bin simple as.

james child didnt help matters when as said above nothing happens with alot out head high tackles, this is what gets to most fans / players.

the rules are right, if you let players do what roby did with out a sin bin then the game will be slowed down and ruined, the refs just need to do a better job looking after players and sort out high shots leading with elbows etc