The ref’s giving god-awful decisions left and right, so what do you do? Strap a hi-def camera to his chest and actually see it from his point of view, of course. Or at least, that’s the idea. Somehow I think it’ll be a jerky, vomit-inducing mess of footage, but Rugby’s trying it, and other sports might follow.

This Sunday, the RFU is trialling ref-cam by strapping a camera to the chest of Matt Carley, who will be reffing on-pitch to bring you closer to the action than ever before. If you’re mad keen on heavy-breathing, sweaty beasts-of-men, and the odd scrawny flyhalf, this is going to be for you.

Thing is, there is such a thing as being too close. I mean, HD cameras have already shown us that pretty much all sportsmen have terrible potty-mouths — it just ruins the illusion. But then, if it was rolled out to football for instance, at least you’d be able to see how pathetic diving looks from an on-pitch perspective — that and the poor grasp of the English language available in the ‘English’ Premier League. [BBC]

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