As Leeds Rhinos, Warrington Wolves, Hull KR and Salford Red Devils fight for the play-offs and Wigan Warriors and co battle for the League Leaders’ Shield, tensions and pressures are high and unfortunately it is impacting some fans who are maybe taking things too far.
The worst example of this was perhaps the abhorrent abuse suffered by official Marcus Grififth online. We also saw fan trouble as Hull FC and Castleford Tigers met.
But there have been two incidents that the RFL are considering action over, Serious About Rugby League can reveal, the first being when a Hull KR fan ran onto the field to scream at an official.
L’Independent has highlighted the incident and suggested it could have impacted the rest of the officiating, stating: “But the image of an English fan on the edge of the field, raising his voice in front of one of the referees, is challenging.
“Did his invective affect the rest of the meeting? The question arises in any case, in the same way as the physical integrity of the arbitrator who may have been threatened.”
This comes after Steve McNamara complained about a try. “It’s a try, a dead-set try,” McNamara said on YouTube.
“He decides without consulting anybody else. 20-metre restart, we go from a try scored, I can’t remember what the score was at that stage, to a man in the sin bin on practically the same play. It was a big decision, a big call, and it was taken really, really quickly.”
Meanwhile, in the Championship the RFL are considering action after the match between Bradford Bulls and Featherstone Rovers.
There were suggestions that there had been some violence from Fev fans and that they had been removed from the ground as per the Game Caller.
The RFL received a report on what happened and could take action but with a number of cases in the system it could be a while until a decision is made.
Speaking on the club’s social media channel, Ford reacted this saying that they have a lot to change and admitting he is miserable despite the win because he is determined to make the Rovers better and getting them into Super League.
Speaking after the game at Odsal, James Ford said: “Congratulations to the players. They’re the champions of the league, they’ve won it with four games to go.
“It was 2013 since we last finished top so I hope that the the supporters who came in great numbers today and got behind us tremendously well, I hope they enjoy the victory and enjoy us being league champions.
“Regarding the performance I don’t think we dealt well with the field. We trained on a pitch that size all week and too often we tried to play around them, and came up with some really loose decisions and to be fair some poor execution of skill.
“So I’m a little bit deflated but I suppose I’m just a naturally miserable bloke aren’t I?
“The exciting thing for me is that every single bloke in that dressing room is on board with the idea that we’re chasing improvements. We know we can be a lot better than that.
“I know they’re better players than that, I’ve coached against them, and we’ll have a good look at it, do lots of learning and go after those improvement areas for the playoffs.”
