When you are at the games, you don't even notice the second ref. It's worked really well over here so far (if you excuse Bellamy doing his usual whinging about it upping the penalty count). The only problem I could see to it working in SL would be that they are struggling to get 7 refs seemingly, never mind 14.

I heard that too. I assumed that one ref would be the senior one and one would just be an extra set of eyes.

Nope, they're totally equal. Which in the whole scheme of things (see above) is the right way to do it.

PS: No Brisbane spoilers today anyone. Not on annual leave this week.

certainly seemed that way in the bulldogs game last week.

There is the control ref and the assistant ref. They both take it in turns to be the control, which is what we would consider the normal ref position, with the more experienced ref being control for a greater percentage of the game. They had 2 refs on the footy show last week and the said if 2 refs of equal experience did the game they would have a 50/50 split on being control. The ref who is not control does not blow his whistle but advises the control ref if a penalty occurs. Has worked well so far I have seen 5 NRL games this week and you don't even notice the 2nd ref.

Two refs making the game quicker

rlhttp://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/sport/nrl/story/0,26799,25202517-5006066,00.htmlrl