Fans who attended the first Welsh derby of the year certainly got their money's worth as the Scarlets and Ospreys played out an action-packed 23-23 draw in Llanelli on Saturday night.
If nothing else, it was a long evening at Parc y Scarlets, with the game taking over 100 minutes to complete thanks to stoppages and Welsh referee Adam Jones had a lot on his plate.
The big showdown was littered with incidents and roused a baying Scarlet fan base, who created an electric atmosphere throughout the contest. Sometimes they cheered Mr Jones and sometimes they booed him, such is the career of a professional referee.
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Jones, along with Television Match Official Sean Brickell, had to make a number of huge decisions that had a significant impact on the outcome of the game as momentum swung first with the Ospreys and then with the Scarlets.
After the match, Ospreys boss Toby Booth toed a diplomatic line, saying: "One coach will say one thing and one will say another. The referee makes a decision and then we phone up the assessor on a Monday to discuss it. That's the normal process we go through.
"There were a few contentious moments and I actually thought the referee, under a lot of pressure - whether he made the right decision, I'm not saying that - was actually quite calm about it. He plays it as he sees it.
"Like we do with our team, we'll discuss the accuracy of that and sort it out from there."
Let's take a closer look at the big calls.
Costelow yellow card
Scarlets fly-half Sam Costelow was the first one sent to the naughty step in the 24th minute for a dangerous clearout on Justin Tipuric, who was in the process of stealing ball at a breakdown.
Initially, Costelow's actions were overlooked by referee Jones but he went back to take another look on the big screen at the next break in play. Upon re-watching the footage, he deemed it a yellow card offence.
Explaining the decision to a bemused Scarlets captain Jonathan Davies and Costelow, he said: "It is a lifting tackle, the player is low to the floor but you still lifted him above the horizontal and he's landed dangerously. It's a low degree of danger, so it's a yellow card offence."
After the match, Costelow, who was named man of the match, said: "It happened so fast. I don't know. I didn't mean any harm, he obviously grabbed the ball. I will have to go and look at it on Monday."
Tipuric gets away with one
Before the half was out, Tipuric was soon on the other end of the stick.
Johnny McNicholl sent a kick in behind the Ospreys defence and Tipuric then collided with him - and it was late by anyone's standards. There was little mitigation as Tipuric had a full line of sight and Premier Sports commentator Tom Shanklin believed it was an avoidable collision.
But a bizarre chain of events unfolded. The hit happened in the final passage of the half and just as Jones was blowing up for half time and players were heading to the tunnel, TMO Brickell stepped in.
"Don't stop the game Adam because I'm checking for foul play. Late tackle," he said.
Prompting Jones to shout: "Wait there now, wait there! Keep the players on the field. Two seconds. Just wait, the TMO is checking a late tackle."
Chaos broke out. Fans had no idea what was happening, Ospreys players, beginning to realise what was going on, were remonstrating with the fourth official to let them down the tunnel. Tipuric, incidentally, just quietly positioned himself as close to the mouth of the tunnel as he could without drawing attention to himself.
Upon seeing the first replay, Jones immediately said: "There's nothing in that." Shanklin disagreed: "I think that's a penalty."
Brickell was seemingly in Shanklin's camp, saying: "Adam, do you want to look at that again? Look at the time from when he kicks the ball until contact."
Jones then re-watches the incident and changes his mind. Meanwhile, Scarlets fans in the stand are apoplectic and demanding a card after seeing Costelow sat down for 10 minutes.
The referee then says: "I just want to go through the head contact process. We do have head contact, yes? For me, we have foul play. For me, the first impact is on the chest from No.7 black and then it rides up. I'm starting at a yellow card and then I'm going to a penalty. Do you agree with me?"
Brickell agrees but Scarlets captain Davies does not: "It's a high impact to the head."
Explaining his decision to simply penalise Tipuric and not card him, Jones said: "We've reviewed the footage. We do have head contact and we do have foul play. The initial contact is on the chest and then it comes to the head. It's penalty only, from a yellow card, down."
Shanklin agreed with every Scarlets fan in the ground: "I think it's a yellow card offence and you'd probably be slightly annoyed if you're Jon Davies there."
Scarlets boss Dwayne Peel would not offer any thoughts on the incident after the match but suffice to Tipuric didn't linger around the referee when it became apparent he would be staying on the field.
Costelow kicked the penalty but the Ospreys retained a seven-point lead and kept 15 men on the field... for the time being.
There was plenty more to come.
Giles in trouble
After the break, Jac Morgan was penalised for a marginal call of not releasing the tackled player before going back in to jackal the ball. Minutes later, Scarlets' Josh Macleod was judged to have got his timing just right and caused chaos at an Ospreys breakdown that saw the ball squirt out and the hosts launch a counter attack.
Scrambling back, Keelan Giles threw out a hand to stop the break. The moment Jones deemed the ball to have gone forward, Giles was in trouble. There were few protests.
"He's not trying to catch that ball, there are numbers outside, it's a linebreak and it's a yellow card against No.11," explained the referee.
Try or no try?
In the 66th minute, TMO Brickell was called back into action once again. Parc y Scarlets was going berserk as Costelow sprinted under the posts for a score - and an ensuing conversion - that would bring his side level.
But we were going to have to check something first. The hosts had the ball courtesy of a thundering hit from new signing Vaea Fifita on Owen Watkin. The Ospreys centre immediately seemed in some discomfort and dropped the ball as he hit the deck.
Watching it as it happened, the tackle looked nasty but television replays began to clear a few things up. Firstly, Fifita does have an arm out to wrap as Watkin is being dragged to the floor by Corey Baldwin. Where that arm makes contact with Watkin is a bone of contention.
It's worth noting that the big screens in the stadium did not work for over two minutes and referee Jones was on the verge of putting the decision squarely on the shoulders of his TMO. Eventually the screens did come on and Jones reached his decision after seeing the incident once.
He said "There's a clear wrap. The player is already being tackled. For me, I'm not seeing any foul play, I'm going to award the try, Sean."
Try Scarlets. Game on.
A fateful slap down
In the final play of the game, the Ospreys, suddenly trailing in a game they had been in control of, were attacking in the Scarlets 22 needing seven points to snatch a draw.
As they looked to create some space, Scarlets No.8 Sione Kalamafoni knocked down a pass. Had the referee deemed it simply a knock on, then it would have ended the game but a penalty would give the Ospreys another chance. This was a decision Jones took his time with.
Eventually, though, after seeing multiple angles, he penalised Kalamafoni and showed a yellow card.
"That is a deliberate knock on for me, with that action," said Jones. "He's not going to catch that ball with that action of one hand out and then down."
TMO Brickell agreed: "I believe it is a slapping action and not an attempt to catch it."
Concluding, Jones said: "The hand is out to stop the pass, there's no attempt to catch the ball so, for me, it's a yellow card for the Scarlets player."
From there, the Ospreys scored through Rhys Davies and Jack Walsh's nerveless conversion from just inside the five metre line sealed a draw and brought an enthralling game to a close.
"The card at the end... it was a tough one, to be honest with you," said Scarlets boss Peel.
Everybody leaving Parc y Scarlets on Saturday night will have likely found it an enthralling encounter and both sides will have felt slightly aggrieved not to have won.
It leaves those of us with a foot in neither cam pondering one thing - who'd be a referee?
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