Running the rule

With the first full week of Super League underway, the knives are already out for the men in the middle.









Every year we see new edicts, interpretations and innovations come out of Red Hall and for 2007, it's the obstruction ruling that's had a little tweaking yet so far at least, the results are far from fantastic.

This weekend's round of six Super League games saw a total of 137 penalties. A staggering 29 off which came at Bradford, Wigan and Warrington traded 26 stoppages, 25 at Craven Park, 24 at Hull FC at the clash between Salford and Leeds saw with whistle blown 20 times. Only St Helens and Harlequins managed to keep the referee relatively subdued, given away just 16 penalties between them.

The result so far has been close games, but ones which have been extremely stop-start affairs. Without making references to the other code, the games have not been the free-flowing end-to-end encounters that we had perhaps expected.

Ashley Klein's performance at Huddersfield last week was roundly criticised for the same reasons. However Klein was in the unenviable position of controlling the first game under the new laws. With little guidance, no benchmark and little communication being made to the viewing public, he was set up by Cummings and Co to be shot down.

When the referee's met today at Carnegie, the number of penalties was no doubt on the agenda, with the noises being made by the paying public, expect the number to drop this coming week.