Watching the game and Barnes' performance - I don't see bias as such, but he did influence the outcome by a) not looking at the clear Briz forward pass. b) penalising Sale's LH when the Briz TH has got long and was virtually lying on the ground, and c) when he did a "drop ball" scrum for getting in the way - he gave a penalty whereas given the reason for the scrum, he could easily have asked the Briz 9 to play the ball, just like he had before in this game.
It's a bit of an officiating issue at present - for me - that there are too many random scrum penalties and too many overall - least for me - and even with a v clear bulletin from WR on the breakdown - it's still too often a mess, dangerous (not binding, flying in etc.) and seemingly not being played like the Laws suggest. Offside is also to often randomly/not called, and that's with a TMO watching the same that we do.....And when Curry crawls are allowed....There probably needs a look at the maul and how it can be defended as currently it does seem an uneven contest too often. With players in front of the ball - meaning the defence is essentially blocked from contesting.
It's not going to change/improve quickly, easily, but those areas are an issue for me, in too many games. Sorting it ought to improve the game as a whole. Actually applying the breakdown Laws (what WR wanted) and offside as written would be a start....
Always a Wasp
