Yeah a combination of things are the cause. The HT's do seem to drag on a bit, more caution over injuries and making sure the player is ok or taken off for a head assessment (which is a good thing) and finally the VR. Fair enough when they get a genuinely tricky one or one that doesn't offer great angles or views....but they seem to take several looks at even obvious ones. The on field decision rule doesn't help as you can tell sometimes the VR wants to overrule or agree with what the ref sent it up as but just can't get conclusive proof.

I can't speak to the length of the Sky TV half-time interval (usually only 6 to 7 mins when edited) but each half almost routinely now runs to a full 50 minutes in order to get 40 mins playing time in these days and it's been this way for a long while.

I agree with Printer that it's partly due to more care with head injuries which is a good thing overall - players appear mostly genuine injured and get up if not - but I still think the video ref is the biggest factor in late finishes and for me spoils the flow and length of the game.

When its half time usaully its between 10 and 12 minutes break but on a sky game its usually 16-18 minutes! i know this because i have been stopwatching games

I like it

So, this is a huge bug bear of mine who long games are taking at the moment.....here are some suggestions.

[u1. Goal Line Drop Outs[/u

If a player goes down injured at a goal line drop out [iin the field of play[/i to delay the restart then they must be replaced at the cost of an interchange. If they subsequently get up and into the defensive line they should be sin binned for 10 minutes for conning everyone. If they are in the in goal, then play would continue as normal. I'm aware of the impact of head injuries in all this and they would be covered by the current protocol (obviously if the doctor is on the field, play has to stop anyway)

[u2. Goal kicking after a try[/u

If said goal kicker does not have the ball on the tee ready to kick within a minute of the try being scored then they should be sin binned. Yes Marc Sneyd, I'm aiming this directly at you!

[u3. Video referee[/u

Scrap it. At the end of the day, the on field official has to make a decision anyway. Stick with your decision. If it's wrong, it's wrong. Referee's are human, they make mistakes. So do players, there were 18 errors last night.

Oh, I forgot to mention.

4. Half time

12 minutes maximum - no more.

Just finished editing last night's game and no surprise that yet again the first half timed at 51:40 (from Sky focussing on Child to start of ads break) second half 51:28 (from kick-off to just after Watkins miss at goal)

As Leeds are literally always on the box at present to illustrate -

Hull 51:40 and 51:28
St Helens 49:54 and 48:00
Wakefield 50:49 and 52:09
Wigan 51:19 and 48:28
Hull (CC-BBC) 51:55 and 51:04
Wigan 48:50 and 46:31

Actually kicking off at 8pm would be a chuffing start!

I think we actually did kick off on time last night for a change.

The game finished at 10pm even with the game starting at 8.01pm!

It is the downside of video refs. I would rather have one than not. However, I do feel that is a decision cannot be made within 3 attempts of looking at it then the ref's decision should stand. Problem is there are more angles than ever to watch the incident from than ever and that will add yet more time/complexity to the decision making.