My pet hate is players moving 2 metres to the side of where the tackle took place and thus milking a penalty for the markers not being square.

Yep. Hicks will have had players blocking his view. He'll have seen a player (Gidley?) bending as if he's attempting to catch the ball and then the ball hit the floor as if it's been knocked on.
In the absence of any other info I can't blame Hicks for giving it as a knock on.

I can only assume the TJ was unsighted too otherwise I can't for the life of me think why he didn't tell Hicks what actually happened.

The game is very fast and refs have a huge amount of decisions to make in every set of 6 let alone the whole game. We need to use the TJ's more/better and I also think we need a "2nd ref" although I don't think we need to do it in the same way as the NRL do, rather than a 2nd ref I think we need a "3rd" TJ but one who is on the pitch and can monitor the play the ball and report to the ref.

Then again, if the previous tackler wasn't lying in the ruck in the way, this might not happen so much. This seems endemic now (NRL too), and it wasn't a couple of years ao.

Quite, and the fact that we don't have a second ref like the NRL surely makes it all the more important for the TJs to be a bit more pro-active.

Did you know they are actually mic'd up?

Yes.

Anyone see the incident in the Catalans-Widnes game?
Catalans were penalised at the PTB, because, Mounis, i think had just completed the tackle but got trapped between the tackled player and the dummy half, he couldn't get out of the way but basically froze so as not to interfere with the PTB, but then the Widnes player, i can't remember who, just threw the ball at him and it was given as a penalty.

This isn't the first time i've seen it, Wigan have done it a few times and Henderson while he was at Catalans was a master of it, but my issue with this " offence" is that

A:the defender can't just disappear after making the tackle, yes he should clear the ruck, but if he had tried to do that, he would have no doubt conceded a penalty for not clearing the ruck quick enough, so he basically stood, or knelt still, not playing any part in the game. what is the defender supposed to do in this situation?
B:the referee should have a bit of understanding, knowing that the defender isn't trying to interfere and that he just got caught out positionally.
C: if anything the dummy half should be penalised for gamesmanship. He could have easily passed round Mounis, or just over him, but he deliberatly threw the ball at him, if you do that in other parts of the field it's a penalty, so why not in this instance?

To me it's just another case of pandering to the attacking team, who seem to get the benefit of everything at the moment.

This is a pet hate of mine. How difficult is it to raise your flag if players are offside? Aside from straight after a length of the field break, they should always be in a position to do so. The man in the middle seems to struggle most of the time yet we don't utilise the other five officials very effectively.

Alternatively, just penalise EVERY infringement for a few weeks and watch the penalties dry up as the players adjust to it. Rocket science? Na.

Think it was last season against Wigan, player Wilkin completed a tackle but got hurt with a blood head injury, Micky Mac acting half took the PTB via his shins into Wilkins face. Ref gave a penalty to Wigan for interference instead of stopping play for the head injury or a blood injury ruling, remember Wilkin getting up off the floor and giving the ref a death stare.

Also, Touch judges get a bit more involved in non-televised games, when its a Sky game they know they have to be 100% correct or they could be undermined by the video ref or the constant replay to find something that "did't happen".

In the Grand Final McIlorum deliberately passed the ball at a Leeds player on his knees at the side of him and got a penalty.

There has to be a balance in these things. If we want quick play the balls sometimes we have to accept that the defenders are going to be strewn about the place at times.

I understand what Bren2k means and agree on large part, just that there has to be a balance between the 2 as the play the ball is so massively important these days that you've got to give the defence some leeway too.

Ah but that penalty gave us chance to catch our breath AND if you look at our defensive line as he played the ball it was all over the place. Gave us a good minute and half rest and we scored the decisive try 2 minutes later. Well played MM!

I think on a few occasions the ref is taking his eye off the PTB process, because he is setting the defensive line and checking everyone is on side, he then looks up and finds the ball is lost. Touch Judges don't confirm any circumstance so ref gives benefit of the doubt as interference, same thing happens on a loose carry with multiple tacklers, they just give a 50-50 guess at times.

Did you know they are mic'd up?

From what one person on this forum described with regard to their experience officiating it really opens your eyes as to how poor the whole thimg is/was viewtopic.php?f=2&t=574336 .

From what one person on this forum described with regard to their experience officiating it really opens your eyes as to how poor the whole thimg is/was viewtopic.php?f=2&t=574336 .