I understand the law all right, I think it is ridiculous though.

And if the RFL bust a gut laughing good for them.

If you understand the law then why are you suggesting a method for judging forward passes that wouldn't actually work?

And if you want the law changed so that forward is judged relative to the ground rather than the passing player then you haven't thought the implications through and/or have no idea about physics.

I want to see a massive Rob Burrow making a flat pass to tiny Eorl Crabtree in an Ames Room, on BnA. I love a bit of forced perspective. And shoehorned double meanings.

Getting a fair few people signing up to this ScottHKR.

.........and plenty on the other SL Forums I see

luminaries such as R. Silverwood, Craig Sandercock, Nigel Wood and Chris Burton among them.

Take out his Derby bloopers at Magic Weekends 2013 & 2012 & Leeds v Bradford (Milleniam Magic?) and he's been one of the best we've had. Maybe I've just got a soft spot for him #respect

I think the ref's are on a hiding to nothing, I think we are asking far to much of them, We need a root & branch overhaul of the way the rules are applied. The ruck area is my main concern, we are hell bent on speeding up play to the point that the defence is pushed to get anywhere near ready, I would ,(1) ensure the ball is played by the foot every play the ball any movment ot the ball backward by the hand to be penalised. ,(2) stop tackled players holding the tackler, kicking out & strggling on the ground,(3) moving forward off the mark, (4) stop players diving to the ground to get a quick play the ball by enforcing the voulantry tackle rule. It should be every players duty to try to remain on his feet & make forward progress with the ball. Tidy up the ruck & half our problems are gone. There are lots more we could do but there is not enough time here.

I agree. The 2 obvious routes to go down are, IMOthen[/i standing up, hands 'accidentally' getting trapped delaying play, defenders attempting to dislodge the ball after the tackle. There's so much room for interpretation or discretion that it is no wonder fans (with their natural bias) get frustrated with refs.

Aside from the making the ref's life easier, I think it might make play a bit less stereotyped - it all seems to be about winning the collision and getting a quick ptb, rather than ever trying or needing to beat a set defence. I know that is difficult to do, but do we need quite such hectic pace to a match or 60+ points per game at all regularly?

2. Apply the current rules more stringently, to try to cut down on all the messing about in the ruck (now I sound like Stevo!). Which might well require a second ref.

The only problem, IMO, with any unilateral and at all radical change is the impact on the international game.

Getting the Aussies to come on boared is the dificult part, I agree with the need to bring back skill by beating set defences. The whole ethos seems to have changed over the years, I would love the emphasiss to be on keeping the ball in play, kicking the ball dead or tacking it over the dead ball line should be penalised. catching the ball in goal should not be rewarded by a 20 restart (10 meter restart by play the ball at best). Another idea I have mooted before is that each club should employ one full time referee(but having no say on them just paying the cost) giving us 14 full time refs who should be responsible for training & overseeing the officials in the lower leagues, I also think that ex players should be encouraged into the job even fast tracked.

Great. So is your idea that the player stop on the spot before passing the ball? I think that's netball isn't it?

Kosh is right, that particular line does your petition no favours at all.

No, they wont. One incorrect decision by a referee would not matter a jot if they players made fewer errors during the entire 80 minutes of a game. You cannot focus on one persons singular decision and say thats what decided a game.

If a referee get the wrong call in the first minute which leads to a try, its has the same impact on the score as an incorrect call in the last minute

If a referee misses a forward pass which doesn't lead to a try, should it be pulled up?

You are attempting to turn the game into American Football. It would last 3 hours to get through 80 minutes due to the stop start nature.

Personally I think referees do a decent job. Anyone who thinks things have got dramatically worse is very wrong. Holdsworth, Kershaw, Whitfield, Lindop et al all made huges clangers. But theirs were not shown in the minutest of details on TV for each game.

And before them you could go back to Sgt Major Eric Clay, that humpty-backed barsteward Thorpey and others. Remember when Holdsworth, Kershaw, Whitfield, Ronnie Campbell & Lindop were reffing, we also had the likes of John McDonald, Alan Burke et al.

There is a system for assessing referees with input from each club and a referees' assessor. There is a problem with recruitment and retention of referees and that problem is exacerbated by the levels of touchline abuse in the amateur game, especially at junior level. If you go to an amateur game, just listen to the abuse that comes from the touchlines, usually from speccies who would struggle to read The Laws of the Game without moving their lips at the same time. The OP has already evidenced his own struggle with the dynamics of the "forward pass" and he's not alone.

I'd like to see more openness and accountability among referees. There is a "league table" based on assessments received and I see absolutely no reason to keep that table secret. Stats are produced and published for each player, there's no reason that cannot be extended to the Grade 1 officials

The problem doesn't need petitions. It needs a bigger pool and/or a willingness to demote a ref who is clearly poor.
As an example I have seen numerous ref's in the Championship who look capable of a top league gig but as a general rule SL is a closed shop. Because of this the whole system becomes far to comfy for all.
As much as I don't want to I will go back to Ganson at the Eithad, I think we can all agree that the 'Tracked the wrong player' doesn't hold up to much scrutiny. Yet it's so comfy in the ref's office that they thought/knew that 2 weeks off for Ganson and everything would go back to normal.
It did and it is because that is just how it is when it's a closed shop which has no real openess.
Players are pulled apart with Opta and you can easily compare 1 to another yet with referees it's all behind closed doors on some levels.