I have come to really dislike the use of the video ref. It was brought in to prevent travesty tries being given that cost a team the game and embarrass the sport.

However on televised games now the video evidence is scrutinised by a legal team for two minutes and assessed for its legal merits. They search for reasons not to give it outside what the ref had doubts about. The on-field ref should make a decision saying something like "I am going to give this try if the grounding is okay" and if the grounding okay, unless there is a huge obvious howler of a knock on or something the try stands. If the grounding is hard to see, the try stands because the on-field ref give it. It is boring waiting for a decision, tries are wiped off for minor 50/50 things.

Many times I have jumped around after a Saints try, only to shout "Oh no, he's put it on the telly!" If the try is given, the fun has been taken out of it because I have had to wait two minutes and I am angry because I could see it was an obvious try.

I quite like the announcements over the tannoy explaining the decisions. I don't see the point of showing the deliberations on screen, but I think they've been put in to show that the refs are actually making the decisions.

I think one of the issues is the length of time taken over some decisions, if the decision needs to be watched more than 5 times on a super slow mo, then maybe it just should be benefit of the doubt to the attacking side.

I do think that the video ref is here to stay, and that is the correct way to go. They get more decisions right than they do wrong.

Wait - The village people were gay!?

racist.

EM mentions the Salford v Wigan game as over use of the VR.
I do tend to agree with him.
The obstuctions I've no issue with as if the tech is there use it and they are very difficult to see first time.
What got me in that game was the VR being used for the Bateman try as the ref was in line when Smith kicked the ball for the last time before Bateman touched down.
Also the Hock no try. His ball carrying arm hit the ground twice before he got over the line.
The Powell try, from the TV it was clear Williams didn't knock on as the ball hit his boot.
Then the Burgess try, was he in touch? He was over a metre in play.
On those four incidents the ref and TJ's should have been able to award or disallow as appropriate as they were so obvious.
If they had decided on those four try/no try then the other referrals would have been on the obstuction calls which would have been a different matter.

Note the Manchester Evening News! not the Echo, well Super League are based now in Media City Salford! Still feel right or wrong with the subject McManus likes to hear his own voice and be in the media.

Subject matter, video is being used wrongly currently, but to scrap it completely would be another backward step, something RL seems to love to do.