Dire dire game. Three immediate issues that were emphasised last night
a) The kicking......SH games have been played under the new Laws and I certainly didn't see that level of kicking or lack of playing. The number of kicks in the first half was right up there with whole games I have criticised in the past for too much kicking....and if continued will be v tedious indeed.
b) Officiating. Firstly, the officials need to get a grip on offside. Especially at box kicking, when especially and EA was well offside, but all over and secondly, I like Barnes as a ref, but I think he was getting conned at the scrums too often. As an old prop I know how hard it is to see the "shenanigans". Credit to the Sarries Italian prop - I'd have been proud to get those penalties - but as an example, one around 37 mins, the Sarries TH almost "pulled back" for me causing the collapse and he seemed keen all game not to engage fully. And oddly, Barnes didn't seems to want to officiate the scrum on the Sarries line near the end which went down...with Briz holding/slight push on. Either allow the scrum to be a restart or get a grip.
c) Being held down at the ruck. Commentary team were trying to be kind, but both sides were conning the ref by their own actions. It's a penalty against for holding down and holding contributed to the game being a mess.
If the games are like that the WR directive on the application of the Laws around the breakdown will have little impact.