HUDDERSFIELD winning on St Helens soil for the first time since November 1978 made me feel a little nostalgic about that year.

The Fartowners, pre-Giants and dare I mention Barracudas, won 16-15 on that murky afternoon at Knowsley Road courtesy of a Peter Roe drop goal.

Saints, it has to be said, were not on the best of runs with that defeat being the third on the spin, with the preceding week’s loss to Kel Coslett’s Rochdale side being equally surprising. Maybe that was the dawning of the real winter of discontent.

It was different era – that same fortnight there had been bread shortages on account of the bakers strike with not a twinnie to be found on the shelves of ‘the Cworp’, Benyons or Krazy Kuts.

Yes the world was definitely a different place back in November 78 - people used to go out and buy records and that weekend Boomtown Rats’ Rat Trap was number one long before Geldof’s beatification.

And in the sporting world, it was the week Viv Anderson became the first black man to play for the England football team. (Football again was a long way behind rugby league on that one).

Yes, we have moved on in some things, and probably regressed in a few others.

There were things about rugby league back then that were brilliantly pure, honest and simple – and that is what made the sport so appealing.

Entertainment wise there is a lot more to a match day experience now and some of the frills and add-ons are geared up to keeping families amused for a couple of hours.

Playing entrance music is all very well, but dressing the referees and touch judges up in circus clown outfits like at the weekend is a step too far.

How are refs supposed to command respect wearing a kit that looks like it has been pulled out of a laundry basket after the Croatian football squad has mixed their jerseys up with the bagwash of a Liberace tribute act?

I ask you, what was wrong with referees wearing black? Never in a million years would you have ever got Billy Thompson or Sgt Major Eric Clay to stand in the middle in that kit.

Nor does the game need dressing up with gimmicks like a ‘countdown to kick off clock’, which will fall flat on its face when a gust of wind blows the ball off the tee.

But they are just peripheral issues – of more concern is this legitimisation of clear forward passes.

Luke George’s try on Saturday came off a pass that was a mile forward.

It doesn’t matter how loud a commentator shouts about ‘momentum rules’, surely if the ball is passed forward it is a forward pass.

It should be not a difficult concept to grasp, or have I missed something?

When Super League borrowed so many other frills and gimmicks from grid iron maybe they thought they would sneak in the passing mechanism as part of the bargain.