Quote: Last Son of Wigan "As captain Bateman has the right to talk to the ref, he 'questioned' the ruck speed which he is allowed to do. Bateman is very new to the role, so SW prompted him to talk to the ref-no more too it. '"
That's a very generous interpretation of what happened. If John Bateman is experienced enough to be captain then he's experienced enough to talk to the referee when he sees fit. Fact of it is that Wane wanted to get in the refs ear but is not allowed by the rules, so instead sent Bateman back to do it on his behest. Nothing against the rules, certainly against the spirit of them though and let's not pretend Bateman was anything more than a puppet.
Quote: Last Son of Wigan "Captains asking refs about ruck speed etc happens every game.'"
Normally during the course of play, normally not when a player has left the pitch at half time and come back on at the behest of his coach - I'm not sure I've ever seen that before.
Quote: Last Son of Wigan "Only last week I heard Rob Burrow talking to the ref saying "We just want to get our fair share" when he felt Leeds should have been awarded a pen v Hull. 'Get your fair share'? so pens are now equally awarded in a game? I thought pen were awarded when a team broke the rules. '"
Yes, that's exactly what he meant when he said fair share. He didn't mean equal treatment, he meant please give us penalties we don't deserve. He wasn't referring to the fact that he's just had his bell rung by a guy who was ten yards offside (so both serious foul play and a professional foul) and the yellow card it deserved hadn't been issued, he was asking Cobb to fabricate stuff. It wasn't a talking point because there was nothing to talk about - that was a perfectly standard player-ref exchange. Last nights was not. That is why they talked about it.
