And why were the Warrington players running in? Because Toronto kept starting scuffles. He warned both sides and only one side calmed down and spoke to the ref with respect. The professional side. Toronto were an embarrassment today so pop your dummy back in and stop defending such shoddy sportsmanship.

I think the incidents leading up to the red card played a massive part. Toronto were fired up and starting at every opportunity. A red seemed harsh but the law is it is a red. You'd have seen a yellow there if the game was clean from Toronto up to that point.

Toronto didn't cover themselves in glory today, but neither did Ben Thaler. There was a lot of talk about referees 'losing control' after the Featherstone and Hull game and I think today again you saw a referee out of his depth. The first half hour was atrocious from a discipline perspective. Toronto came with a gameplan to be rough and tough and throw it around and see what happened. Warrington were just as aggressive and if anything worse from a disciplinary perspective up to the incident under the sticks. How many hair pulls were there on Kaye and Simms before that? Three or four at least and there were countless flops and swinging arms on tackled players, ridiculous sledging and chest-beating and Thaler did very little about it.

Then the incident under the post happens. There were a few punches thrown in that as well, just too many bodies around for them to connect. Thaler clearly got really flustered by that and for me the game turned, not on the red card, but on what Thaler did then. He broke it up and tells Hill to take his players back to the half way line and he'll talk to him then. Hill makes a flippant comment, brushes past him and starts it again, sledging and pushing and shoving. If anyone is talking about pub league rugby and pub league behaviour, that was it. What does Thaler do? Absolutely nothing, not a thing, just tells him really nervously not to do it again, which again is met with a flippant comment and backchat.

Fast forward to the yellow, just ridiculously harsh. No malice in that at all, Thaler all riled up against Toronto for some reason. The red comes up and Thaler is itching to send him off, cannot wait. That whole incident was ridiculous. The Warrington player has no right to kick it off after the play the ball, initial penalty should be Toronto's. They square up, Warrington player takes a huge risk and butts head with him. The punch was the weakest, feeblest connection there has ever been and it's now a red? For me that sets a huge precedent now, ANY punch is now an automatic red card, because he was being held by two men and it was no more than a slight push to the face. Red card is given and a string of penalties go Warrington's way. All penalties you could give technically, but absolutely none of them had any context in the game, they weren't gaining an advantage from it, he was just punishing any slight indiscretion because he had a major bag on about Toronto. He was ignoring the same minor indiscretions from Warrington. It was unprofessional and embarrassing from him as much as the Toronto team.

McCrone as Captain is entitled to question the referee. Nothing he said was anywhere near as disrespectful as what Hill said or did. All he said was it's a two way street, you've given us nothing and you're not treating us with respect. All completely true. Thaler was like my Mum when I was 6 there, unwilling to talk like an adult should, just sent me to my room without listening to anything, hiding behind the sanctity of being my Mum. I'm all for ref's being respected, but they've got to keep their side of the bargain.

At the end of the day Warrington were going to have the quality to win that game. Thaler, whether in panic or determination not to have another Fev v Hull 'on his watch' was deliberately refereeing one side differently to the other. Serious questions need to be asked at the end of the season about the refereeing as there are so many inconsistencies and too many times when referees are influencing games.

Delusional.

Thought Thaler dealt with it all well. It isn’t he fault the players lost the plot.

Saddened that's your most ridiculous post of all time - and that's saying something. Utter, utter tripe.

So how many people got sent off from the scuffle under the sticks?

None. Due to nobody throwing a punch or doing anything to warrant a card of any colour.

I can’t beleive I’m saying this but I agree with some of what Saddened said.

Given thalers yellow of their captain (which I don’t have a problem with) Hill should have had the same after Warrington’s first try (which incidentally was a clear obstruction).

Toronto’s discipline was appalling and they deserved what they got however Warrington were hardly angels and the penalties and cards seemed a bit one sided.

I thought the ref had a good game and dealt with Toronto in the manner warranted.

Typical Paul Rowley coached side , thinking your dogs b0ll0x in the championship to unravelling at an alarming rate against a disciplined professional Super League outfit.

Rowley and his band of muppets need to open their eyes and see they are a Championship team at best and Super League is a pipe dream for most of that squad.
McCrone's argument with Thaler was laughable and to hear Rowley bleating at the end proved what bad losers he and his team are.

If they do manage to achieve SL at the end of the season most of their current squad will be off loaded, and back in the Championship where they belong.

I'm with the majority of sensible, non-delusional posters, who lay the blame for that fiasco squarely at Toronto's feet; they were amateurish thugs with no intention of playing the game properly - a mirror image of Leigh under Rowley; flat-track bullies at Championship level, and chippy when they can't get their own way against a professional outfit.

I actually thought Thaler handled them very well - and the RFL should be taking action against Featherstone and Toronto for denigrating the competition; we get very few opportunities to showcase the sport on FTA TV, and both sides have seriously damaged the image of the sport and the CC.

On a side note - if you're the guy who ploughed millions into the Toronto experiment, wouldn't you be dragging Rowley and his morons into the office this morning and giving them the rounds of the kitchen? I know I would.

Bang on the money, I said in game Thaler was hammering Toronto and that Goodwin should have gone for the neck throw. Dixon is being grappled round his neck from behind and squared up from the front, you think he's going to continue to allow himself to be physically harmed by Goodwin strangling him.

That Hill incident was a disgrace, he should have being walked for that alone.
Basically Thaler lost all sense of perspective if he even had it to start with and was as bent as a 9 bob note, not fit to officiate kids, the Toronto captain was correct, it's a two way street and Thaler was simply offloading his anger and failed to be a professional in what he was doing.

The RFL have let down the sport for far too long, something needs to be done because they are allowing the game to devolve into a farce, the officials get the hump with one team and lose their poop with them and at the same time it's oft down to their inability to be consistent to start with.
Hardly surprising more than half a dozen refs have left the sport in the last few years, Silverwood was right in his radio/twiter comments.

I've never understood why Toronto went for Rowley in the first place. They have all this money to spend, so why not go for a coach who has a proven track record at the top level and has a history of winning trophies?
I am sure they could have attracted someone of a higher calibre than Rowley, so why him?

In some ways this could be a good thing for Toronto if they learn from it and realise that thuggish tactics won't cut it at the highest level of this sport. Better something like this happen now in a relatively meaningless game than happen in one of the super 8 matches, right?
The question is, will they actually learn. We've seen this countless times before with a Rowley coached side so I'm thinking that they probably won't.

A neck grapple and thrown to the floor by the neck is far worse than a punch.
You can't do neck grappling (player welfare)
it's illegal (punching isn't 'banned', it's simply not legal)
it's the wrong sport

Oh wait, because it wasn't toronto the ref did nothing. Switch that around and the punch gets a yellow and the neck throw gets a red. Thaler was bent and unprofessional.

Delusional. Dixon dropped with a shoulder on Livett in the tackle and they both squared up, Dixon punched Livett and Goodwin broke it up. Goodwin did nothing wrong. No card would've been given to anyone if Dixon kept his fist out of Livett's face and if Toronto played rugby instead of being aggressive poophouses.

Talking about the hill incident, you seem to have conveniently ignored that fact someone grabbed hold of hill's head guard fingers dug in, and pulled his head and neck way back during the hand bags, i'm not surprised he was livid and whoever it was will likely get a warning from the disciplinary this week.