What are touch judges meant to do in rugby union?

I go often to watch rugby union games and am constantly baffled as to what the touch judge is meant to do. What role are they supposed to serve? They do point their flag to indicate who they think should be taking the line-out (and where). And they check that the defensive backs are a certain distance away from the line-out. Plus making sure conversions and penalties go through the posts. What role should they actually perform in terms of giving the referee advice and support regarding foul play? Seems like the ones we get are always pretty blind to anything! What are they for?!

You were right. They establish where the ball went into touch, and who will have the throw at the line own, they mark out 10metres for the backs during lineouts, they jugde if conversions and penanties are successfull. As far as giving the referee advise, they are in constant communication with the referee via earpieces, and two way radios situated in the flags. They talk to the referee alot, but when the referee is unsure of what happened, he will take their advice. You would often see them coming onto the field after an incident to describe what happened at a punch up for instance. Obviously it helps having three sets of eyes rather than one. The IRB is considering trying a setup of having two refs on the field, as this has been succesfull in some club competitions around the world.

Matt Stevens – Life away from Rugby