I'd disagree its a intentional thing, as you're alluding - rather just a coincidental increasing number of errors that we're seeing, maybe in part because we have this ridiculous "last passage of play" thing.
Bottom line - the group should be better, and some of these errors are inexcusable - and sure - some may be letting the close calls go through to the keeper but the flip side is in doing that they open themselves and the wider MO group up to a mountain of criticism when those errors/ misses are inevitably replayed to death for the next week. For that reason alone I can't see it being intentional as who on earth would want that?
In their defense - the job is genuinely harder than it looks. You have to be very, very good at processing what your eyes are seeing and applying some frankly ridiculous touch laws in a split second and I challenge anyone who thinks it's easy to volunteer at your local association and find out for yourself. To reiterate - these guys are professionals, and should be better and getting those calls right, but I don't believe that this is correct.
Yeah, I didn't mean to suggest it was necessarily intentional, it might well be in some cases/for some refs, but for the most part I think it's just a consequence of the shifting nature of how games are refereed, technology is used, and they way that has impacted decision making processes. It's something we've seen (or it feels like we've seen, I'm acutely aware this is all vibes and I don't have the data I'd want to back this up) across the board in refereeing, but I think the reduced input and involvement from the touchies across the board is really hurting the game. Potentially this is amplified by the fact that it's ref's running the sideline any given week, rather than specialized touchies.
If we do accept that they are going to make mistakes (any reasonable person would) then I think part of the fix here is leaning towards making the call live and risking more "false positives" (calling players out when they weren't) rather than letting it go through to maybe be checked by the TMO and risking false negatives (not calling players out when they are) in live play. This does kind of run contrary to the general principles the game is refereed by (a benefit of the doubt to the attacking team, allowing the play to flow sometimes in ignorance of the laws), but in touch is also different to almost any other refs call as there is no provision for play to continue, unlike everything that comes under advantage laws.
The other, somewhat related, change I'd like to see explored more is hard limits on advantage. We've seen some minor trials already, but the idea of phase limiting the period of advantage, with the ref to always make a call after a set number phases as to whether advantage has been gained or to go back should also help limit the 'dead play' periods that I think are contributing to the errors we're seeing from refs and hurting the spectacle. It would hopefully also help standardize the benefit gained, at times it feels like this can fluctuate pretty wildly even within games and sometimes results in what is effectively double punishment for the infringing team.
www.world.rugby
