They just don't seem to have the courage to make a quick decision. It makes me think Bentham is a hard task master behind the scenes because something has changed. In the NRL the captains challenge is so much quicker. The VR has a very quick look and unless it clearly an error on the refs part, they just seem to move on. Our guys have look after look at issues and from various angles. I didn't like the captains challenge when we used it in the last World Cup, especially when you're in the stadium and have no idea what is going on and was disappointed to see it brought in and it's not changed my mind so far. 

If we want to make a real change to the system as a whole, why not just make the on field ref give trys or don't give them and allow both captains a challenge or 2 challenges each, to use on whatever they see fit. That way we're not going up for anything and everything, the captains won't waste challenges on nothing decisions and if you think you're team has scored and it's been turned down or you think the opposition hasn't scored but it's been given, you can look to challenge them. It would be similar to the system in cricket with LBW decisions or decisions on batsmen having edged the ball or not. 

I like that idea, NK, but you're asking for what, wisdom, now, from the RFL?

I'm sure between the production team and the VR they could easily speed things up as a starting point.  

The amount of times the VR will say play that through slowly and they rewind 30 seconds, go through again at full speed, have to go back again etc.    

Then they ask for a better angle and they go for the worst angle possible, then Sky show the angle where it clearly shows what happened  - after the decision has been made.     


It's just poor from SKY - as is the majority of their production.     



The one aspect I thought worked well was the post game analysis with a player  - and they dropped that a few years ago....  

I think a big part of the difference is that the NRL just don't tolerate criticism of refereeing the way we do. I think they actually go too far in trying to limit what players, coaches and the media can comment on but it does help the refs. Here, the referees know Sky will go over every decision ad infinitum, sometimes banging on about decisions for the whole match. It's no surprise to me if they're a bit over-cautious.

Video refs just seem to lack the courage of their convictions. They are probably scared of making a decision too quickly and getting it wrong, but when they watch the same incident over and over again, from the same camera shot, what are they expecting to see different on viewing 10 compared to viewing one? Just make the call and get on with it. On the subject of officiating, a real gripe of mine at the moment is how pretty much every dropped ball gets called as a knock-on. There are several incidents in every match I watch where a ball is dropped but seems to go backwards, but then gets called as a knock-on, which just slows down games even more.