Having watched this match in the Six Nations yesterday, I was interested in reigniting the discussion about dissent / acceptance of the referee's decisions between football and rugby.
It was a pleasure to watch how accepting the players (and the commentators) were of the referee's decisions - even one where he disallowed an England try because of an earlier fairly technical infringement. He used his microphone to communicate with the TMO (VAR's equivalent), and then called the England captain in to explain his decision. The England captain's response was pretty much - fair enough ref, and he tossed the ball to the Italian captain so they could get on with the game!
I get that England were easily winning this particular match, but it's just so refreshing to watch a game where players aren't appealing for any possible foul... (and if they do, they're quickly shut down).
At the end of the match, the pundits discussed how each team had performed - not the refereeing decisions!
Are we too far gone to get any sort of respect for football referees?
It was a pleasure to watch how accepting the players (and the commentators) were of the referee's decisions - even one where he disallowed an England try because of an earlier fairly technical infringement. He used his microphone to communicate with the TMO (VAR's equivalent), and then called the England captain in to explain his decision. The England captain's response was pretty much - fair enough ref, and he tossed the ball to the Italian captain so they could get on with the game!
I get that England were easily winning this particular match, but it's just so refreshing to watch a game where players aren't appealing for any possible foul... (and if they do, they're quickly shut down).
At the end of the match, the pundits discussed how each team had performed - not the refereeing decisions!
Are we too far gone to get any sort of respect for football referees?
