RESPECT for the referee in rugby league has always been an essential part of the sport’s fabric.

Anyone brought up on stories of Sergeant Major Eric Clay bossing the show - or seeing Fred Lindop and Billy Thompson have no qualms about sending some of the biggest characters in the game for an early bath – will have seen that respect for the man in the middle is paramount.

And so it should be.

One of the most unappealing aspects of professional, top-flight football in the last 30 years was the way referees are hounded after making a decision with players circling them flailing and flapping their arms like Magnus Pyke.

Rugby league has never been like that.

Respect for the ref has been one of the game’s core values.

But we have to be careful – and it is right that players are punished for mouthing off to the officials - even when they have got the calls wrong.

You could see why Mark Percival got upset at the weekend when he shouted at the touch judge after being tackled after hacking the ball ahead.

It was a key time in the game, three minutes from time and trailing by four points, and arguably the decision should have gone the Saints way.

But the officials are not going to change their mind because someone insults them. And for that let’s be grateful.

It was the right call for him to be punished - frustrated as he was. But he does have to be careful – having let his frustration get the better of him last year in the Salford game when he picked the ball up and kicked it, miscuing it into the midriff of referee Scott Mikalauskas.

Yes, he was not looking and sure he did not mean it, but he was rightly charged, fined and suspended for an action that was against the spirit of the game.

Percival’s was not the only incident from the weekend.

Danny Brough too, was dismissed and subsequently banned for three matches for using aggressive language to the touch judge.

And in Friday’s televised game - although unpunished - Leeds’ Brett Delaney certainly looked like he made his feelings known after being pinged for a high shot on Sam Powell, which cost them the game.

He felt hard done to, it was a big call and other seemingly similar had gone unpunished.

Let the governing body punish poor officials, but players must not take the law into their own hands.

The other aspect that has crept into the game – during televised games – has been how players can now stay down in the hope that the review can give a decision their way.

That is not saying those players are feigning injury or cheating, anything but.

But it does seem now that anything that hints at being a crusher tackle, players have an incentive to lay down, holding their necks to stop play, giving the refs time to consult the video and award penalties and cards.

Things do get slipped into tackles all the time – a lot missed by the touch judges and the ref, but refereeing by video does open up a can of worms.

And sticking on the subject of video refs…..two weeks ago the Saints v Hull FC game gave the perfect reason why they should be used for forward passes.

There has always been this argument that the camera angles make it difficult to get 100 per cent certainty. Well that is a load of baloney – no matter which angle you used in that game, the pass to Albert Kelly was so far forward it was beyond ridiculous.

There are lines on the pitch to show where the ball was passed and caught – why is that so difficult to prove on video.

Of course that should have been spotted by the officials, but it is illogical to review tries for every other reason bar forward passes