At least the incident is being 'invetigated' :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 695413.stmBut frankly folks, we all know what the standards of an RFL investigation are and increasingly, Red Hall has been acting like some Third World Banana Republic (after all, when was any player of any colour last suspended for a cup final / grand final ? Thus, giving abolustely no incentive to behave). Does anyone realistically think that someone on (one would suspect) a salary in excess of a hundred thousand per year be bothered by couple of hundred pounds 'slap on the wrist' by the RFL ?
Much has been made by the booing of him at the Exiles game (and whilst I didn't partake of it myself, I can understand the reactions towards him, given his penalty-milking antics across Northern England) but it is worthwhile considering that Leeds fans seem to have been blamed for the booing, most of the regular Leeds fans were in their regular places in the South Stand and thus, you'd expect the noise to come from the regular places (e.g the back etc.) ... It didn't and from what I could see, most of the noise was coming from down the front and sides, where there were groups of (amongst others) Cas and Hull (both sets) fans. To label it a Leeds problem only is laughable.
And, given the supposed respect campaign towards match officials, check out the reaction of Sam Tompkins towards Rob Hicks after the scoring of the last Ryan Hall try at Wembley ... A flurry of screaming abuse towards someone doing their job to the best of their abilities.
Both these incidents of behaviour are not acceptable and should not be tolerated.
Interestingly, in Aussie Rules (a game noted for its biff once-upon-a-time), they used to double the length of bans for trouble during showpiece occasions, but don't expect anything as forward thinking from the RFL.
Brining me on to my main point, in a couple of weeks time, Leeds fans will be asked by the RFL to unite behind the odious Sam Tompkins and his slightly less odious brother Joel kick-a-man-on-the-ground Tompkins as if nothing has happend.
Well folks, if you support this idea, things could be different this year and perhaps force the RFL's hand in to taking some serious action against these sort of antics.
Do not dismiss 'fan power' and power of the pounds in Leeds fans pockets. After all, why do you think the Exiles game was played at Leeds and heavily pluged to Leeds fans in an attempt to get them to turn up ? I would estimate that at some internationals that Leeds fans make up some 20% - 25% of the fans attended.
Take those levels of fans away and it going to hit the RFL in somewhere where they will finally start to take notice ... Their back pockets. I would suggest that the Four Nations runs on margins where a 20% drop in projected revenue is going to make a serious difference.
So, what can you do ?
I know some of you will have got tickets for the England games already and that's fair enough .... But for those of you that haven't and were thinking of going, do you really want to pay your hard earned cash towards someone that shows that level of contempt towards you ?
Is Sam Tompkins worthy of representing this nation on the back of those sort of antics and abuse towards match officials ?
The ball is very much in the RFL's court and if they fail to deal with this matter, then our response is to not support the 'national' team.
You might also want to consider boycotting England shirts and merchandise (they don't look very good anyway) and / or withdrawing your email address and details from RFL mailing lists.
Wembley is going to look very big and very empty without the thousands of Leeds fans that otherwise would be there .... And let's see the RFL try and fill it with Wigan 'bandwaggoners' and Hunslet fans etc. They need us down there far more than we need them (you could always watch the national side getting hammered on Sky, if you're that interested)
