4 minutes prior to all this, Red kicked off and tackled the receiver whilst in the air for a YC. I went with two yellow cards by the goal line so Red were down to 12 and the penalties were just getting more flagrant. It felt odd to keep pulling out the YC and I was starting to think if Blue kept at this, Red would be down to 5 players.
Some yahoo on sidelines kept shouting about me giving Blue the game. I wanted to drag him around to see the other side of the rucks so he could see this stupid crap. In the end Blue scored and then missed the tying kick.
The best part was one of Red's players that intentionally pushed to see where my limits were, thanked me for those limits.
Wow. That sounds very similar to a game I had during the season where both teams had amassed 6 YC (5 red, 1 white). Early in the game, YC to for red taking a player out in the air (more clumsy than deliberate), then 10 mins later the non feed SH decided to just bitch-slap the opposing flanker during a scrum ( :wow::Looser
and the flanker decided he didn't like that and retaliated. I decided it was better that both hot heads could have a rest in the bin to cool down.
The rest of the game was good until the last 5 mins with red Had the game won, but white pushing red line looking for a moral boosting consolation try. After a warning for high tackles (more from fatigue than malice) red tackled high again so he got to rest on the line for the remainder of the game. No more than a few phases later just inside the 22 the red captain cynically comes from the side of a ruck and took out the SH who was just digging for the ball (claiming he thought it was out - yeah right!). Red now down to 13. Within the next few phases White were right on the line and red hands in the ruck to slow down ball, I play advantage (no chance of PT) as I see the ball is coming and white look to have an overlap and then the same player I'm about to PK and YC deliberately falls into the same ruck to try and kill the ball. He fails but I have his number and am going to YC him as soon as I blow for the PK, but I see ball come out and white want to go so I allow it to give them an opportunity (knowing I'll come back to the YC as soon as they score). But that raid falls flat. I come back to the mark and YC the player who knows what's coming and he dutifully trots off without a word. Red now down to 12. White fail to convert with their dominant numbers.
Like you, all the YCs at the end didn't feel right and I wondered where my management went wrong that red were so eager to blatantly infringe? I felt that perhaps I should have escalated one of the last 2 to RC, but it didn't feel right had I done that. I felt maybe I pocktetted it? The player that I last YC came up to me and apologised and admitted he knew what he was doing and said 'I'd had enough and I just wanted a rest!'.
Because of the last 3 YC I felt I had a bad game but could not think where I had done wrong. I spoke to our top referee in the area about it and asked whether I should have escalated to red to change behaviour. He agreed that I'd done the right thing and a RC would have been harsh. He suggested that multiple YC for cynical infringements was fine and they don't get escalated to RC.....just keep YC them (save the RC for foul play).
