Assistant Referees/ Touch Judges

The unfortunate thing is that again it is very difficult, whilst you are running the line, to see every part of the game, whilst you are looking at play, you can't possibly look at off the ball incidents & vice versa. There are still only 3 pairs if eyes officiating whilst up to 15 flash points at any one time. So if 3 "flash points" are being monitored, 12 are being missed ! As yet, TMO can only be used where a try is in question, & I personally hope this remains so as the game doesn't need to go down the route of american football, stopping every 2 minutes & games taking hours on end to complete !

 

We are told to make unobtrusive gestures (in the absence of radio packs) in the event that the Ref decides to overrule the AR, it doesn't inflame the crowd.

 

In lower leagues, the AR is non existent unless they have been appointed by the Referees Appointments Secretary or WRU (normally only the later cup stages), the merry flag wavers supplied by the Home & Away sides respecively do not have any power to signal infringements, regardless as to whether they are qualified Referees or not, only to signal if the ball is in touch !