touch judge

"No way am I questioning the touch judges. Clearly we have something to work on, but it just seemed very unusual that something we have practised so many times resulted in that number of penalties.

"He just lost the ball and what staggers me is that a referee and two touch judges cannot see it.

'To me, the touch judge is there to put his flag up when the ball goes out and to make sure there is no foul play going on.

The big Wasps lock was red-carded on the advice of a touch judge during England's 36-12 Second Test loss to the All Blacks in Auckland last June.

The touch judge called the referee's attention and then the referee disallowed the try on grounds of a knock-on.

"I can see where Steve is coming from and it's a bugbear of mine when you see it at the line-out when you are meant to have 20 yards of space and touch judges are supposed to look at the defensive alignment."

KICKER: Caption to go into herey "(The referee) said he couldn't overrule if the two touch judges said it didn't go over.

"I don't like touch judges calling no try and then they get awarded as tries.

If the RFU can't provide touch judges that are up to the task, they may as well save their money and have substitutes run the line with jumpers for flags as you would end up with a similar end result.

Both touch judges signalled the conversion by Andy Riley as good but the referee overruled them and it cost Widnes a share of the spoils.

The Falcons' 16-16 draw at Leicester when they were denied victory by referee Tony Spreadbury and his myopic touch judges.

Dudley Kingswinford head coach Mark Wilson has called for the introduction of official touch judges in Midlands One after his side had two men sin-binned during their 30-18 loss at Bedford Athletic.