FORMER Super League referee Robert Hicks has revealed his “darkest day” in rugby league.
Now Director of Legal and Operations at the RFL, Hicks retired as a full-time referee in ahead of the 2022 Super League season – ten years after being appointed one.
During that time, the 41-year-old has officiated in Challenge Cup Finals, Super League Grand Finals and two World Club Challenges, and in successive World Cups in 2013 and 2017.
With that in mind, Hicks does have one particular moment that he would like to have again – the 2019 Challenge Cup Final.
That game ended 18-4 to the Warrington Wolves, but early on, Morgan Knowles had a try disallowed for St Helens.
Television replays appeared to show the Saints man had got the ball down over the line when the match was still scoreless, but Hicks decided not to refer the call to video referee Ben Thaler and instead ruled it out – and he has regretted it ever since.
“I’d love to referee the 2019 Challenge Cup Final again. The decision with Morgan Knowles’ disallowed try under the posts will probably go down as my darkest day in the sport,” Hicks said on the League Express podcast.
“The fallout from that was a very tough time for me personally so I would have that day over again.”
Despite the fallout from that mistake, Hicks is still very much active on social media – and chooses to engage with people if they go about it the right way.
“I choose to be on social media, it’s a decision I took a number of years ago when it wasn’t as big. I think you have to make a decision yourself, some referees aren’t on it.
“I have a rule that I will engage with people if they are polite, but I won’t overengage. If people are polite and ask questions, it’s important you get your message across.
“But, you’ve got to have limits and the block and mute buttons are brilliant tools on Twitter. It is a more divisive place now and it has got worse over the past few years.
“The downside to Twitter is, the algorithms keep you in a false bubble thinking a certain message. I don’t think people work out that it is wider than the bubble.
“So, I try to have a spectrum of people I follow to defeat that algorithm of negativity.”
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