watched the video of the game again last night, and this was a major problem all game - with Goulding and Farrell the biggest cuplrits in particular.

At one point Goulding steps 2 feet to his right, Wilkin stands his ground at marker and James Child shouts "he moved to the side" - if you spotted it James, you should penalise him.

I'm pretty sure that I read on the Ask the Ref twitter questions that the touch judges do police the offsides.

There you go, all you need to do is blow for a few penalties and coaches will stop asking their players to do this.

Yup, all we need is fans and the media not to carry on about the ref wanting to be the centre of attention if it happens.

Ah, like Stevo's "let the game flow" argument?

Which is entirely dependent on what mood he's in. He'll be commentating on a Friday night peddling that line, then on Saturday he'll be shouting 'he should have been PENalised' every thirty seconds.

He should be PENalised.....of his job.

That comment about coaches not asking their players to infringe reminds me of a discussion I have with my old man a couple of times a season. When a senior player gives away a penalty for lieing on or holding down (used to be Joynt, now often Wilkin), My pa is close to thrombosis, berating our player. I explain that its likely the more experienced players are coached to do this when we are perhaps being a little overrun, to hinder the opposition's momentum and often they'll get away with it. He says "I'm your dad.....go to your room"

It stands true though.....if they were penailsed more often, teams on the front foot wouldn;t be slowed and the game would be fast and exciting.....or perhaps one sided with a very high score!

And i do recall a game some years back being reffed morer stringently and after half time the players were better behaved, but I couldn't quote numbers or 'owt.

I think the problem was that, around 2006 and before, refs were encouraged to give less time to the tacklers, resulting in a quicker play the ball, but it very much favoured the Brian Smith school of coaching - big forwards, quick play, run from dummy half.
Whilst the game was quick, it was perhaps limiting the amount of constructive, attractive rugby, as the ball often didn't get wide of the ruck.

When we came up against the aussies in or around 2007, we looked (more than usual) way adrift in terms of playmaking ability. That's when they decided to slow things down, give more advantage to the defenses in order to make the attacking teams come up with better plays. I think it has worked - the emergence of the full back as an extra pivot is one result.

It has gone a bit far though and I wonder whether, instead of concetrating solely on the time allowed at the play the ball, they could have a look at what I would call cynical grappling.
Genarally too many second efforts when a guys been tackled and on his way up.
Too often I see a tackled player on the floor and one of the tacklers will grab their loose arm and wrap it in an awkward position.
Very often, the player's tackled stood up, the ref shouts held and the defence are then (for some reason?) allowed half a second extra wrestling to pull him to ground.

Also, we very rarely see the sin-bin used for holding down following a break. This should be a must, IMO.