He can position himself better though. The one against Cas by Kendell he slows down whilst moving diagonally towards the posts, should realise that they could be players chasing back trying to stop the try or tryscorer getting closer to the posts. It’s similar to when you see high bombs put up in the corner and a defender drifts across to block an attacker except on these occasions the ref doesn’t realise he’s doing it or doing it as a tactic, doesn’t mean he can’t be wiser about it though.

Refs can’t just disappear but at the same time we shouldn’t get to a point where defenders chasing back come to a complete halt because the ref has run across the line they defender NEEDS to take.

The ref has 26 players to avoid, they have 1.
Of course he should try and not be in the way but equally he has to be close enough to make decision.
If it's a genuine accident then no ban but for me that requires the ref to turn and run in to a player who was near him not running or something like that.
He was in my running line is not an excuse.
It's all on the player for me.

He does have to be close to make a decision but that gives him some room to work with. A defender doesn’t have a choice he has to get a certain spot, not just somewhere near. Whilst they’re 26 players on the field he realistically has to avoid a few on any given play. I’ve now seen one of the London incidents and again it’s from Leeds chasing back near their tryline and Child is running backwards and just stops dead in his tracks, when you’re a defender sprinting back and someone who would’ve been out of your way had he taken 1 or 2 more steps back stops then yes it’s hard to expect that defender to stop in time.

Like I mentioned before these incidents of contact with the referee seem to have risen massively in the last 3/4 years so questions should be asked of the referees and if they’re doing their bit to avoid being in the way. Or do we think players from all clubs on a whole have suddenly decided to start running into refs for a laugh.

So are you saying all the different refs are running in to platers for a laugh?

you say all clubs, can you supply a list of the players and clubs that have been involved with collisions with the ref

I can only remember Houston at Widnes and Hock loads of times. McShane was let off I think.

This season Sam Tompkins ran into Kendall at Belle Vue, he got a one match ban I think

And yet you have one player who does it three times in two games. Really bizarre.

Although I have a slight recollection that Stewart Houston did it again to the same referee. I might be wrong but it's a niggle in my mind.

It's Chris Houston - and I agree - it's such a rare incident, that it seems perverse for Parcell to be 'accidentally' in collision with the ref 3 times in 2 games.

There's an argument to say that the ref may well have been badly positioned - but it's not for a player to demonstrate that by deliberately clattering into him to prove a point; and I say deliberately quite deliberately - no player is that clumsy, or unfortunate, or whatever other excuse will be made by Printer to explain away these events.

No but when incidents of player/ref collisions have clearly risen over the last few years then I think it fair to question both sides and whether refs need to work on their positioning. I mean the current group of referees are hardly well thought of standard wise especially amongst Wakefield fans....are we now staying they can do no wrong and are perfect with their positioning?

It does seem strange for it to happen 3 times in two games but probably only goes to show it be accidental. If you get away with a warning one week you’re hardly going to purposely not only do it again ONCE but TWICE the next week especially with your team leading. You can also say it’s strange that Parcell hasn’t done it in 2 and a halfway years he’s been here, so randomly deciding he’s now going to use it as a deliberate ploy is far fetched.

Sorry, yes, Chris. I know a Stewart Houston, sort of, so that first name was lodged in my head alongside that surname.

You seem obsessed with the position of the referee; which is a bit like using the position of a pedestrian as your defence when you've just mown him down.

The referee has a right to be wherever he deems it necessary for him to be - he exercises that right, and it's explicitly the responsibility of the players to avoid coming into contact with him; something which Matt Parcell has failed to do on 3 occasions in 2 games - more than any other player I can recall in a number of *years* let alone games.

I have no idea why he's doing it - but I refuse to believe that as an agile, speed-conditioned athlete with extreme levels of alertness and spatial awareness, he has been totally unable to avoid those collisions on all 3 occasions. Maybe it's petulance, maybe it's frustration, maybe it's something else - but it's not a series of unfortunate accidents.

I’m not “obsessed” with the refs positioning, it’s just a pretty key factor in an issue of a player colliding with a ref (comparing it someone being hit by a car is pretty poor taste and OTT btw)

The ref does have a right to be where he wants but doesn’t make him free from criticism or make it an impossibility that he made a poor movement/positioning.

Funny that you refuse to believe it’s accidental because I refuse to believe that the fact that Leeds’ next game happens to be against Wakefield isn’t why SOME of you are so keen to see him banned and making a deal of it. Sure you’d be as bothered if we weren’t facing you again this season