Just watched the first half, the first competitive game with two refs and I've got to say that despite the criticism of the decision to trial two refs the game has been played at break neck speed, due mainly to it not stopping for the ref to change sides, the players looked knackered by h/t. They have one ref behind each team and one steps up to the defending team and takes control while the other stands in back field behind the attack, and it's making for a great game.

One other rule change that some here have advocated is that when a team forms a scrum to stop the clock they have to stay formed to keep the clock stopped thereby making whoever packs down stay down.

I thought that was already in the rules but has never been policed by the refs?

It should be, you get wingers and full backs sprinting to get in there.

Some referees have got it in their heads that we the paying supporters pay good money to watch the ref- two refs trying to out do each other


What happens when the refs disagree

Who will Stevo have a go at???


I'm not having a go at the officals for trying to improve the game but Stuart Cummings is scratting around to find enough officals to cover the fixtures.

Do the referees change sides at any point? Is there a problem with 'interpretation' of holding down etc?

TalkSport had Jeff Winter on once and there were discussing if it would good to have 2 refs in football. Jeff said he had been involved in a trail game with 2 refs, said that he and the other ref ended up trying to 'out do' each other.

Funny thing is, they are saying 1 ref is to watch the play the ball and the other is to watch the defensive line for off side - isn't that the touch judges job!

For non-sky games they will be 7 officials - 2 TJ, 2 in goal, 2 refs and a man in the stands. Who gets the final say on decisions?

or 10k at headingley

South stand

Yes each ref stands in each team's defensive line for one half, whichever team is defending that ref controls the game and the other one stands in back play and appears to advise the other one if he sees anything untoward, but the ref in charge at any one time seems to have total control of the whistle and it seemed to work well. As far as interpretation goes they appear to be singing off the same hymn sheet, and yes I know that would be virtually impossible in this country with the personalities that we've got reffing.

Great game and Brisbane won 19-18 with a drop goal 3 mins from time. On the standard of the game, imagine Manley's performance against Leeds but twice as fast, and that is what England are going to have to stand up against in the four nations.

Next game up Storm v Dragons, I could do with having every friday off

Storm v Dragons was shown in Sydney and replayed in Qld after this but not in UK, finished 17-16 in ET.

The system of 2 refs was explained on footy show last night by Badger and Hayne, when its 2 experienced refs the share of control is 50/50 - if a newbie is with an experienced ref the split can be 80/20. The refs change control during the game - usually as the possession changes - but not always.
At scrums the assist ref manages the feed but when the ball comes out control switches to the other ref in the defensive line.
The assist ref sits in the pocket behind play the ball and was described by Badger as a roving Touchjudge.
Both refs (and touchies) need to be in place for a 20M restart.
Looks good on paper and seemed to work today, but there are still PTB's shown on TV that could have been penalised - hard to see if it was one ref's interpretation or not though.

Yeah I found that out when I went back to the telly The commentators said that they were going to the storm game after a break, so I come on here and make a cuppa in readiness, go back to the telly and Setanta's coverage had finished