Political correctness gone mad. If you look hard enough someone will always find offence in anything that somebody else says. The village people comment, as I see it, refers to the fact that they look ridiculous. Get the refs back in black (AC/DC reference there, hope it doesn't offend anyone) and they can look as they always have done. They are there to referee a match, not a) be an extra camera stand b) be an extra advertising hoarding and c) look a complete idiot.

Why would a try like this ever be referred to the video ref? By this logic every break away try where the ref is well behind play would need to be referred just in case there's been a knock on he can't see during grounding of the ball. If the ref has no reason to suspect there's been an offence or an error why would he refer it?

Although even in black some do still manage to achieve point c).

Because one of your touch judges with a wider view says "Might have been a knock on there, can't be sure."

Because the fans of the defending team near the score all jump up shouting "knock-on".

Because the defending player appeals for a knock-on, having seen it close-hand.

Now the ref can ignore all those things and award the try, only to see himself repeatedly pilloried on a large screen in front of 40,000 people, or he can just refer it upstairs to check. The worst that can happen if he refers it is a 60-second pause in proceedings. The worse that can happen if he doesn't, is that the game is decided on a mistake. That's a really easy decision to make.

As I said above, this is all a nonsense issue. The same fans who are currently screaming loudest for not referring things to the video ref are undoubtedly those who would scream loudest about the injustice the first time a ref gave a try which was then shown to be a no-score on the big screen.

As for this straw man about people being turned off the game because of the amount of time a video referee decision takes - what utter hogwash. What percentage of ex-fans have been surveyed to discover this as the motivation for their departure ? What research has been done ? What evidence is there of TV audiences switching off when video ref decisions are pending ?

There's nothing to see here. A manufactured argument about buggerall.

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.