Jonny Sexton has earned the right to referee conversations

The latest round of URC rugby gave us a number of talking points.

The Sharks travelled to Dublin without their international contingent and it was far and away the highest standard of all the matches played over the weekend. It was a bruising, competitive, high-scoring encounter that had a number of its own talking points throughout the game.

The most contentious issue across the 80 minutes, aside from the nasty head collisions on show, was Johnny Sexton's captaincy. Opinion is divided on whether Sexton crossed the line when speaking to referee Craig Evans.

Evans is a stern and dominant referee who lays down his perception of the law in an unremorseful demeaner. When a referee approaches the game this way, with little discussion around their decisions, they will be scrutinised a lot more than other more conversational referees.

From early on, Sexton had questions surrounding Evans’ approach. Maybe it was the tight game that he found himself in, and we know he’s a determined and competitive guy who will argue for every blade of grass around the pitch. However, there were a number of refereeing decisions that caused friction between Sexton and Evans.

As the captain, Sexton is entitled to have discussions with the referee. It is pretty much his job to get a handle on the way the game is being refereed and any good captain plays on the edge of the moral compass when striking up their own relationship with the referee.

It’s not always an amicable, two-way relationship. Often, the conversation can get heated from the beginning of a match to an irreparable point. This shouldn’t happen but for one reason or another it does.

Sexton had one or two heated exchanges with Evans because of penalty decisions at the breakdown that Sexton was