Rugby fans should consider their bleating about officials...

...and what it is doing to the game.

Here is Wayne Barnes's farewell words after the RWC Final:

“See ya later Rugby World Cup. Won’t miss you, or the death threats.”

How sad when an official has that to say about the most momentous tournament/game in the sport.

Even Nigel Owens recently said he wouldn't want to ref the game today, it's become too technical and complicated.

Here's what you have to remember: for every good ref you drive away from the game because of abuse for a few errors or perceived bias, a probably worse and more inexperienced one has to take his place. It's a cycle that's not going to do the game any good.

World Rugby also needs to reconsider the laws of the game. If one of the best ever like Owens says he wouldn't want to ref it now, you have to wake up to the fact that you have created a big problem.

Personally I think the TMO is too involved - as Owens also said, the drive for getting it perfect is now actually having a negative effect because it is an unobtainable standard. We saw with the red card in the final compared to previous events in the tournament, there is still no consistency.

For me, there are three officials on the field - leave the game to them and bring the TMO in only when absolutely necessary. If there are errors, so be it. There's been errors for as long as the game has existed, and they're still there despite all the myriad arse over and under ultra def camera angles and slo mo we have now.

Old Pakster is as confused as ever. He appears to be saying let's live with errors and attempts to cut down on errors is spoiling the game. Hahahahaha what a mampara. 

No it's great the TMO gets so involved. It's easy for a ref to make mistakes. But it goes further than that. Bent refs can ruin a sides chances as can any bad decision in close matches. 

No the TMO must be used to try and get calls as perfect as possible. 

Death threat against refs come from very immature oaks who can't take loss. Or who like Doos can't take a win. 

Nothing is going to stop this nonsense. So refs will have to live with it. The police should of course investigate a this and prosecute offenders. 

The problem is, with reduced or limited TMO support, you will end up missing some of the very blatant forward passes or knock on's that were even missed by the ref in the final 

I am also not a big fan of the constant stop - start because of the TMO, but I also don't see any quick fix

There are those who want the game to be clean, and those who throw a tantrum after they lose. Two different kettles of fish. We see the different types here. Two of them, Michael and Saddex have told me I should be killed or kill myself. These are the types who would threaten a ref or take the next step. 

Recently had an interesting discussion about reffing errors in sport.

My view has always been...remove human refs if you can and make sports as free from officiating errors as possible.

My friend raised an interesting point which I hadn't previously considered.

I'd always though the tradition of human reffing was at the other end to my "error free reffing" philosophy.

The point my friend raised was that tradition wasn't the opposite end of the spectrum. He said it was actually an amount built in error, that was the real counter to what I think is best.

His ultimate question was, if you add 5% of reffing errors into rugby matches, are you sure it doesn't matter improve the game/spectacle?

There is no real way to measure such a thing. But I do know that some small errors in live music often make it somehow better. Same with film. That odd mistake in set design, or condensation trail seen in the sky in a Robin Hood movie, add something to it rather than detracting.

I'm still not entirely convinced, but it is something to think about.

You keep thinking about how errors improve the Rugby experience minimum but I will stick to thinking how to get errors not determining outcomes out of matches.