I know we all love complaining about offsides not being given when we're at a game.... And then we watch it back and the defender wasn't actually 3 yards offside, instead at best, their big toe nail might just have been in front of the back foot.
It's hard for the officials to get offsides right. I get that, I really do. The referee has too much to do and is too close to see offsides. The assistant is looking along the line so is in a good position, but he's also having to judge when the scrum half lifts the ball then look back at the line. If it's the far side winger being 6 inches offside, he's not gonna call it, so he has a judgement to make. He's probably also looking at other offences in the ruck and keeping his eye open for foul play.
It's a damn hard job
However, looking for offside at the kick off isn't. It's pretty easy really. There's nothing going on. An assistant stands on the half way line looking across and if someone is in front of the ball when it's kicked they're offside
Against Toulouse, Elliott was at least a yard offside on every single kickoff, and on one occasion, at least 3 yards offside.
I'm obviously not complaining cos he plays for us.
But when you've got someone with his speed constantly a yard offside and already running at pace, he's gonna close down the ball catcher very quickly.
It's not just Daly, you see it happen all the time.
Given how easy it is to police, why do teams get away with it so often?
Some things in the game I can understand being ignored whether I agree with them or not, but even if it was just a quiet word with the player offside to say it's been spotted and to adjust the timing off their run would be sufficient