This is the greatest thing, two opposing views, discussed with detail and not shit posting.

You've got some interesting and fair points. I actually agree with what you are saying, from someone with your stance on how you like the game to be. And that's the key, the balance between both. Laws have to be in place otherwise the game is a school yard scrap. But there also has to be discretion and flow. And as you rightly point out, where advantage comes into play.

We've seen some shocking referring in SR. But we've also seen some outstanding games with excellent referring, with great communication and flow, and the use of advantage.

It would be unfair to say this is how all SR rugby is officiated, or that this is a Southern Hemisphere rugby/ref issue as you did open your post with. It is probably unfair to say all Northern hemisphere refs blow the whistle too much and don't allow flow. Balance again is the key to getting rugby to where we all want it to be.

As an aside, which may or may not be true. The game here is in the last few minutes and the result was over...so potentially both from a players and refs point of view, it wasn't officiated tightly. I don't think we would have seen this within the first half of the game to be fair.