Two games for contact with referee, a great start to his career here

It takes a special kind of stupid to get banned for that during a friendly! Did anyone see the incident?

I think it was when he had a set too with Jackson Hastings. He tried to push through the ref to get to him

Ok, who had him in the sweep for first to be a numpty?... Bet who ever had Zak is a bit miffed...

Let's see how this rule is policed during the season. I am willing to bet that mitigating circumstances will apply to some! By the way, I am comfortable with a player being banned for coming into contact with the referee the same should apply to any player questioning his decisions.

A bit too revved up on his debut for the biggest club he’s played for and one of the biggest in the world.

I can forgive him for that. It was silly but they’re getting quite precious these match officials.

Not many left !

I noticed it while watching the game and thought he'd be in a bit of trouble for it. I can understand being fired up but he was clearly making unnecessary contact with the ref, and the fact that it was during a coming together between him and Hastings was hardly going to mitigate the circumstances.
Still, it probably means we start the season with Tommy at 7, which was good enough for a Grand Final win and he's defensively stronger than Sammut anyway.

To be fair, Tommy is defensively stronger than any other half back in world rugby league.

It’s rarity but I disagree with you this time. He’s supposed to be the experienced head but he lost it. Also, whilst I thought the way the ref ran the game was indeed precious, just how much contact with the ref would you allow?

I wouldn’t allow any that’s in an aggressive manner and is aimed solely at the ref but have you watched this incident back? I’ve watched it numerous times. There’s a coming together between Hastings and Sammut and verbals kick off. The ref stands in between them and Sammut walks forward acting the big I am and basically uses the ref as a shield. He doesn’t aggressively go at him and looks like he’s not even aware he’s in the way. It’s a heat of the moment loss of awareness of who’s in the way of him and Hastings.

As I said it’s forgivable. It should’ve been avoided but nobody would’ve batted an eyelid a couple of years back until the refs became off bounds for even accidental contact.

Refs need protecting and we need to cut out any behaviour of this type or verbal assaults.

in general (and I haven't seen the Sammut incident back), I'd be more bothered about the verbal assaults than brushing a ref's arm.

They were always off bounds, it's just that players actually respected thst, I've been watching the game nearly 30 years and prior to 2010 I could count on one hand the amount of times I've seen a collision between player and ref. Over the last 9 years players seem to have simply lost respect, poor Phil bentham is having to retire after his second bump in 12 months with the same player, he reportedly has a herniated disc in his neck.

It needs cutting out.

Of course they need protecting from people intentionally placing hands on them or verbally abusing them.

This incident was neither though IMO. If you’re reffing an ultra physical sport where tempers will flare at times, then it’s a occupational hazard that you might get bumped in to. It was hardly Paulo Di Canio stuff out there.