Thanks for that, Fully. Seriously for once, do you also have the definition of "the same tackle" as it looked very much like the first attempted tackle had been broken a split second before Whitehead's "elbow tap" (new coinage?). Is that the same tackle?

Do we also have a decent definition of "stealing the ball"?

That's the trouble with laws (be they of the game, of the land or of the international community), they are often worded ambiguously. At least on here the ambiguities merely lead to lively (sometimes heated) debate rather than barristers et al squeezing a disgraceful rub out of their punters, sorry, clients.

The Ref saw it as he saw it in real time and, with no dissenting voice from the touch judge, called it as it would have been (and was) called here.

There were many dissenting voices when the video ref was first mooted. On the whole it has been a success but will cease to be if everything is sent upstairs. We'll all end up fatter than Yanks if we have to get through twenty burgers waiting for each game to finish!

True, but being a council estate kid, it was only because no one ever had out worth nicking.

In Donny? Don't be daft!

Not everything new is better - not everything old is better. I'n this case he's right.

The game was more varied in the past with far less blow out scoreline than today. In the past a lesser team could engage a better team in an arm wrestle. This meant that the better team had to work even harder to create tries.

Far to many tries come from penalties often in a row that piggy back teams often undeservedly up field. They are also gained by some not so subtle milking!

On it's own this doesn't benefit Australia any more than anyone else except in one crucial respect. RL is all about how many chances you get, Australia's ability to turn chances into tries is far superior to anybody else. When a team is as dominant as the Aussies then enabling them even further doesn't help.

I know the counter argument - we need to get as good as them. Well that's some way off or worse - so in the meantime the only way to level the field is to give the defending team the benefit of the doubt imo - i.e. penalties for holding down, not standing square etc need to be either blatant or persistent.

In essence the defending or lesser team need some ability to slow a game down even if sometimes it's bordering on the edge. The best team will always win IMO but maybe not quite as easily and as early as now. Just an opinion.

For once I agree with Vastman. No wonder the standard of backs in this country get worse every year, its because you dont have to have any skill to score a try, just run at a gap and hope for the best. Thats why you find union backs in this country are head and shoulders above league backs. Its harder to score a try so you need to actually develop skills to unlock a defense.

Regards

King James

Amazingly that's exactly what I meant - so by my own logic I must therefore be wrong