Referees have been encouraged to turn blind eye when ball goes forward | Paul Rees

The desire to keep the ball in play for longer – and get rid of numerous scrum resets – has led to more officiating inconsistency

To see or not to see. That is the question after the opening two rounds of the new Premiership season when the emphasis seems to be on increasing the time the ball is in play by ignoring certain law infractions. Crooked feeds into the scrum have long been connived at, but now forward passes are being tolerated and not straight in the lineout has become a relative concept.

Related: New Zealand and Saracens have taken rugby to new levels of excellence | Robert Kitson

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