Fine Aiton probably deserves an Oscar for the stagger and fall, however as has been said why did Ferres need to strike out towards the face of Aiton which did make contact. Regardless of the dive it was a penalty for striking

In the next game of rugby, watch how many times the man playing the ball pushes/strikes the marker. It happens incessantly. It should either be a penalty for all of them or a penalty for none.

It does seem like it is coming into the game a lot this season is it to do with the must win at all costs we do not want to be the bottom four

Bentham asked Roby did Aiton exaggerate or try to milk a penalty and Roby quite rightly said he'd been pushed and Leeds deserved the penalty.
Got to say though, there was something cringeworthy about Aitons action but none more so than Danny Broughs continual dissent.
Having said that, it was a very entertaining game with some great skills on show and the atmosphere sounded top class.

He seemed to make a miraculous recovery to get up and be interviewed for being Man of the Match. Was impressed. Must have took a hell of a lot of effort to get up after that rather nasty push from Huddersfield.

Simulators should be banned.

Anyone would think Aiton had done a Rivaldo, the way some people are banging on.

What he did was no worse than the numerous tackled players who throw themselves to ground to pretend they've been interfered with to win a penalty, rather than just get up and bring the ball back into play.

I'd be more worried about how soft refs are becoming on dissent. Bentham making a big show after half time of pulling out Danny Brough and giving him a warning was pitiful. If he'd been at it for 40 minutes, why hadn't he even been penalised? Similarly Connor's petulant and aggressive outburst on the stroke of half-time. Just brushed off by the officials.

If you're not going to clamp down on dissent, don't be surprised if players don't have any respect for you later on in the game.

Jake connor shouldn't be raising his hand or pushing him, but to go down like that was in bad taste IMO and not needed, he also went down a bit theatrical earlier on as well.

but for me this wouldn't have happened if Aiton had been penalised for messing around at the PTB, Bentham got most others right, as it was awful viewing from BOTH teams despite what mr gracious Mcdermott said.

strange thing is though that Bentham told Brough he was happy with the first contact but not the 2nd, so is he saying that despite penalising both teams-rightly- for messing around he was happy for Aiton to be messing around that particular time?

there was also a push on the marker by Ablett a few minutes later that went "unpunished"

I think the issue was that the Hudds player pushed Aiton making contact with his face/eyes. Had it been a push to the chest like you see a few times every game then I doubt it would've been penalised.

Pushing the marker is standard practice now - it goes hand in hand with the new habit of moving off the mark by several steps, which has become the norm; in stepping forward, they have to push the marker out of the way to claim their bit of ground. It's cheating, and it's been allowed to continue for so long that it will be difficult reverse.

On the Aiton incident - having watched him at Wakey for a couple of seasons, I was shocked to see him go down like he'd been shot; it was a massive over-reaction and he should be a bit embarrassed about it. But - if Ferres had kept his hand out of his face, it would never have been penalised.

As for Broughy and his continuous gobbing off - someone needs to have a serious word; it's generally an issue in the game, but he's one of the worst offenders. Maybe the gaffer of the players union could have a word - I'm sure he wouldn't brook that kind of dissent from a fellow professional...

Agree with all that.

I look on all the issues (diving at the ptb/dissent/moving off the mark etc) the same as I view diving in football. It can be solved by the refs.
With diving in football it can be eliminated by consistent refereeing. If every time a player who dives is punished, and every time a player who is fouled/impeded but not actually brought down is given as a foul then diving would be eliminated as there'd be no incentive for anyone to dive. The recent dive by Rooney is a good example. He was impeded by the goalkeeper but if he hadn't gone down he wouldn't have got the penalty.

The same is true of dissent in RL (and football as it happens). If players are consistently punished with penalties and yellow cards for dissent they'll stop doing it. By the way by dissent I dont mean a player, especially the captain, just talking to the ref. That is often mistaken by the fans as "mouthing off" when it's not. However the manner in which a player talks to the ref is important and is something that I think the refs are too lenient with. If a player is raising his voice and waving his arms around or taking the mick either by laughing or clapping at the ref then that should be classed as dissent and penalised.

Long time since I've seen a ref March the extra ten...used to be standard practice

The relatively new phenomenon of RL players staggering around like a new born foal when attempting to get up to ptb (now known as 'milking' and something which Ben Thaler in particular yells at players regardless of whether they are being impeded or not) is a direct result of the wrestle tactics that Australian coaches introduced at clubs like Huddersfield and Wigan; and which have now proliferated throughout the whole of SL, like an unchecked arms race. Thanks to that, clubs now employ wrestle coaches, players learn about levers and underhooks, and the modern RL tackle basically involves two blokes holding another bloke up, while a third one barrels in to smash him to the floor - and if another one is nearby, he piles on as well. Then the 'tackled' players tries to get up quickly, while the 3 or 4 muggers/tacklers pretend to be tangled in his legs, each other, or to slip and trip so that it takes as long as possible to clear the 'ruck' while their defensive line gets set. This goes on largely unchecked, and is so blatant that the mugger/tackler on the bottom of the pile will look plaintively at the ref, waiting to be told that he has to get up before attempting to do so.

As a result, the tackled player will attempt to get restitution by exaggerating how much he is being impeded and interfered with by thrashing around at the bottom of the dog-pile, trapping an arm or leg to create the illusion of being held down, or chucking himself on the floor again in the act of getting up - all to persuade the ref to give a penalty. Or he will step off the mark to get out of the way of any muggers still left on the floor. There is rarely such thing as a quick ptb any more - so they play for a penalty; there is no behaviour without function.

Clean up the cheating in the tackle/ruck area, and the concomitant cheating from tackled players will also stop - there'd be no advantage to it any more.

Quote: bren2k "The relatively new phenomenon of RL players staggering around like a new born foal when attempting to get up to ptb (now known as 'milking' and something which Ben Thaler in particular yells at players regardless of whether they are being impeded or not) is a direct result of the wrestle tactics that Australian coaches introduced at clubs like Huddersfield and Wigan; and which have now proliferated throughout the whole of SL, like an unchecked arms race. Thanks to that, clubs now employ wrestle coaches, players learn about levers and underhooks, and the modern RL tackle basically involves two blokes holding another bloke up, while a third one barrels in to smash him to the floor - and if another one is nearby, he piles on as well. Then the 'tackled' players tries to get up quickly, while the 3 or 4 muggers/tacklers pretend to be tangled in his legs, each other, or to slip and trip so that it takes as long as possible to clear the 'ruck' while their defensive line gets set. This goes on largely unchecked, and is so blatant that the mugger/tackler on the bottom of the pile will look plaintively at the ref, waiting to be told that he has to get up before attempting to do so. As a result, the tackled player will attempt to get restitution by exaggerating how much he is being impeded and interfered with by thrashing around at the bottom of the dog-pile, trapping an arm or leg to create the illusion of being held down, or chucking himself on the floor again in the act of getting up - all to persuade the ref to give a penalty. Or he will step off the mark to get out of the way of any muggers still left on the floor. There is rarely such thing as a quick ptb any more - so they play for a penalty; there is no behaviour without function. Clean up the cheating in the tackle/ruck area, and the concomitant cheating from tackled players will also stop - there'd be no advantage to it any more.'" Couldn't agree more, watching PSG at 'tellins in 1997 and look how quick the tacklers get off without the aid of the ref telling them to 'release' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRum3y2hh00

Quote: bren2k "The relatively new phenomenon of RL players staggering around like a new born foal when attempting to get up to ptb (now known as 'milking' and something which Ben Thaler in particular yells at players regardless of whether they are being impeded or not) is a direct result of the wrestle tactics that Australian coaches introduced at clubs like Huddersfield and Wigan; and which have now proliferated throughout the whole of SL, like an unchecked arms race. Thanks to that, clubs now employ wrestle coaches, players learn about levers and underhooks, and the modern RL tackle basically involves two blokes holding another bloke up, while a third one barrels in to smash him to the floor - and if another one is nearby, he piles on as well. Then the 'tackled' players tries to get up quickly, while the 3 or 4 muggers/tacklers pretend to be tangled in his legs, each other, or to slip and trip so that it takes as long as possible to clear the 'ruck' while their defensive line gets set. This goes on largely unchecked, and is so blatant that the mugger/tackler on the bottom of the pile will look plaintively at the ref, waiting to be told that he has to get up before attempting to do so. As a result, the tackled player will attempt to get restitution by exaggerating how much he is being impeded and interfered with by thrashing around at the bottom of the dog-pile, trapping an arm or leg to create the illusion of being held down, or chucking himself on the floor again in the act of getting up - all to persuade the ref to give a penalty. Or he will step off the mark to get out of the way of any muggers still left on the floor. There is rarely such thing as a quick ptb any more - so they play for a penalty; there is no behaviour without function. Clean up the cheating in the tackle/ruck area, and the concomitant cheating from tackled players will also stop - there'd be no advantage to it any more.'" Couldn't agree more, watching PSG at 'tellins in 1997 and look how quick the tacklers get off without the aid of the ref telling them to 'release' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRum3y2hh00