Quote Leaguefan="Leaguefan"It really shouldn't matter who the match officials are IF the players play by the AGREED INTERNATIONAL rules.
The trouble is we all know that the players will try to bend the rules and downright break them.
Whoever is in charge will deal with it how they see fit rightly or wrongly and that is how the game will and should be played.
In fact why not use all 4 refs and see how that works
That'll upset so many "cheating" players they will have nowhere to hide
'"
You have a point to some extent in that some (most) players will bend the rules if they can get away with it - some more than others depending on the character of the player.
In the same way individual refs will adjudicate in their own style, some are very keen on watching for certain infringements whilst apparently letting others go.
A case in point is that when defending their try line players must be behind the line and for a few weeks refs penalised everything. Now, some defenders are actually stood with both feet in front and get away with it.
In the England NZ game there was a blatant "tackle in the air" and punch to Tompkins. What did the ref do?
Answer me the question I posed earlier:
do you honestly think an australian ref would send off and australian prop in the first tackle of the game as per Morley?
With 30 seconds to go, australia score the winning try, but there is reason to doubt the grounding. Does the aus ref put it to the video ref (ganson) or call it a try?
I have watched sports for many years and believe that winning is so important to the aus psyche that when it really comes to the crunch it even infects their officials.
