There's no doubt that the slow, niggly, cynical messing around at the PTB is getting worse, so the below quote from the Wests V Souths NRL game in todays RL press fair had me choking on my coco-pops.

"Sam Burgess was binned in just the fourth minute after laying down too long on James Tedesco after a long break"

Read that again. A player was sin-binned in the FOURTH minute for lying on/professional foul. Not warned, ticked-off, no silly circle-in-the-air, no calling over the captain for a "He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy" chat. Sin-binned for cynical, professional play against the spirit of the game.

Now admittedly, if British refs had the guts to do that from the outset (which they clearly don't, in fact they don't have the guts full stop) we'd probably be down to seven a side (well on Friday Wires would, Saints would probably have kept all 13 on) but perhaps teams would soon let up.

It also begs the question on how lenient refs will be at the WC, because if some of the Brits try to spoil the PTB like they do at home with, for example, a kiwi ref in charge we may well find ourselves on the wrong end of a big penalty count or playing games with 12 men for large periods.

If a ref did that in this country he'd be told to '' off because he's a 'ing' '', openly, loudly, with aggression by five or six players from that team.

That situation has always been penalised with a yellow card over here as it would be counted as a deliberate professional foul following a break. It's the constant slowing down of a play the ball in the middle of the field where our issues are. NRL refs nor ours would bin a player after 4 minutes for that.

My opinion, and I may be wrong, is that the problems lie with the league structure to a point. You have 'smaller clubs' that simply can't cope with the speed and intensity of the bigger clubs attack, so they have to hang on at all costs, and thus the wrestle and 'tangle' at a play the ball comes about. And once one team does it and gets away with it, everyone does it.

We seen it on Friday (And before they start, no I am not saying Saints are a small club) but Saints couldn't hang on with the pace of the ruck. Higham and Ratchford were jumping from dummy half and marching up the field. The only way to stop the roll was to cling on, tangle yourself up in the tackle and slow it down. See the momentum shifting moments, the Waterhouse knock on, Carvell knock on, and the Briers and Grix kicks that were charged down were all of rucks where someone 'accidentally' got tangled up in the ruck, giving time for the defence to set up and get good line speed to build pressure. This happens in every games, yet officials are naive enough to believe that tangles are accidental.

I suppose, the answer is for less teams in the comp, and officials to get wise.

If we get an Aussie/Kiwi ref in the World Cup we'll get penalised to death for not playing the ball with the foot. It's getting ridiculous, 60% - 70% of the time it is done incorrectly over here.