Re: REF : Sat Sep 16, 2017 10:14 pm
NB, I'll take issue with the Refs are innocent aspect. Nothing specific about today's game as didn't see it. However Yes they give what they see, I just wonder if they are just like the players and switch off sometimes. Also just like players they are inconsistent in interpretation. Quite a few examples recently in terms of lying on and what is acceptable for team A while team B is allowed slightly less leeway. We tend to be team B patrticularly when we do start to dominate.
Obviously this isn't all the time but it happens. And yes sometimes they do guess. In a game I'll make an assertion the Ref is wrong (loudly for effect) but privately I'll admit they are right most of the time. However I do believe we get less of the rub of the green.
In the wider world the linesman (refs assistant) whatever they are called nowadays, fact they use comms rather than signals doesn't help the world. In the good ole days you could see the touchy making their point. Nowadays it's a quiet word in the ear that is either agreed or ignored. Problem is fans can't see it. The immediate impact is the refs team are ignoring things, yet in reality they aren't.
I do think and this is more in the last few years we have been poor in tackle technique and dominating it thus ending up slowing things down. However even when competent (those years are getting distant) we got pinged. We do over the last 20 years in SL (probably more) end up on the wrong end of the count. That has been proven and guess what we've had some experienced teams out there over that time frame who aren't slow to get off etc.. Is it a southern culture at the club or just how we are treated as an outsider? Strangely Catalan suffer similarly.
Oh and suggesting one shoulder charge was seen as that and one wasn't is perhaps a point about interpretation. It doesn't actually matter whether the interpretation is correct but that it is an interpretation. It remains open to debate.