IT was a relief to flick over to the final of the PDC World Championship darts on Sunday to see a sport in which there could be no moaning about bad decisions.

Thankfully there is no need for Hawk-Eye when a thin piece of wire does the job in darts; vanishing spray was not required on the oche to stop Gary Anderson and Phil Taylor edging a yard closer to the board.

The festive period was dominated by woeful decisions in football while there were farcical scenes in rugby with scrum problems and TMO shambles.

In the NFL, a sport where there is more scope for intervention by television footage than any other, there was controversy in the wildcard playoff game between Dallas and Detroit when a penalty was given then mysteriously withdrawn at the last second despite the offence being pretty clear.

It proved to be the turning point in a tight game with the former, who enjoyed home advantage, progressing.

Perhaps we just moan about decisions these days and the prevalence of phone-ins and access to social media means out default setting is now whinge about the ref, win or lose.

Even ex-Premier League whistler Graham Poll, the man famous for showing a Croatian defender three yellow cards at the 2006 World Cup, has a newspaper column and radio slot that he uses to frequent lambast the chaps in black.

It’s a tough gig for the officials and in rugby they aren’t exactly helped by the set piece.

When a scrum is awarded the packs amble up to the mark, have a chat with the ref about what is about to happen and go through the process only for it to hit the deck and start again.

Both Newport Gwent Dragons and Cardiff Blues complained after the Arms Park derby that referee Leighton Hodges was guessing at the set piece and the same was said after Ian Davies took charge at Rodney Parade. Two bumper crowds endured plenty of head-scratching scrummaging.

The aim of a scrum at professional level is frequently to aim a penalty rather than restart the game and anecdotally it seems to be far less of a problem area in the Principality Premiership and below.

It’s no wonder that there is a reluctance by referees to punish the wonky lineout throw when the result is three minutes of scrummaging and another chance to put their performance under the microscope.