Re: the bit in bold. I have already mentioned this in another thread, Bentham was at most of the play the balls standing 12m away from it so anyone 2m or less in front of him was still onside. A ref does not need to stand 10m away from the play the ball and most will stand further away as Bentham did. Additionally a player standing in an offside position when the ball is played does not concede a penalty unless they impact on the play before having moved at least 10m away (to make themselves become onside) from it first. There were some instances of offside players being missed but not nearly so many as a lot of the crowd seemed to think.

I didn't mean it that way. I appreciate it was a tough tough match and the players gave their all.

What I meant was that there was very little attacking flair on show and whilst both defences had to work had down the middle, there wasn't much good attacking rugby on show. Far too many errors and a lack of cohesion from both sides.

We all know that the pitch at the DW is extremely heavy at the moment, on the morning of the game we had constant drizzle right up to midday. Twenty five minutes into the match the heavens opened right through till half time. Whilst it won't go down in history as the most expansive game ever, it was better than I've seen in similar conditions previously.

Matty check your pms please.

I don't have an issue with skinny 10s too much as long as it's the same for both teams. Coaches (in all sports, I guess) are the biggest hypocrites going, though. They ask their own players to push their luck; skinny 10s, holding down in the tackle, etc, and moan when the opposition do it. We complain if refs are continually blowing up for pens, disturbing the flow of the game. And we complain if they don't act when we perceive the opposition offside. It would be a simpler world if everyone stuck to the rules, but human nature being what it is...