Rugby and football are very different.
Tossers excepted, a bunch of people can have a decent game of footy without a ref.
You can't really play rugby without a ref. Rugby necessarily appeals to official intervention or it can't work.
That said, it always puzzles me why the professional football game tolerates dissent to the level it does. If referees booked everyone who shouted at them or the lino aggressively or shouted "**** off" every time a decision is given then that sort of behaviour would leave the professional game and there ought to be a trickle down of respect to youth / amateur level.