PHIL Bentham, the former referee, has been recently appointed as the RFL’s head of match officials.
Given the controversy over the tackle laws since the start of the season, I wonder whether Phil is having second thoughts about whether he really wanted the job.
He clearly needs to take control very quickly to try to defuse the temperature surrounding such incidents as the red card given to Hull FC halfback Fa’amanu Brown at Warrington on Friday night.
That red card is probably the outstanding example of a decision that appears to be wrong both in principle and in practice.
Brown and Warrington’s Ben Currie appeared to have an accidental clash of heads, which resulted in a badly bloodied visage for Currie.
Brown was dismissed from the field, by referee Marcus Griffiths, despite the fact that the clash appeared to be a complete accident.
Indeed, if the head clash had happened but Currie’s face hadn’t been covered in blood afterwards, I wonder whether any action at all would have been taken by the referee.
I don’t know what the logic is for dismissing a player in those circumstances, but it effectively ruined the game for Hull FC and their supporters.
I will be very interested to see what decision the RFL match review panel makes in relation to Brown when it meets this week.
Surely it should decide that the dismissal was mistaken and that clashes of heads sometimes happen on a Rugby League field with no one being to blame.
It’s an important problem because I see more and more former players and other supporters expressing their deep frustration with the way the refereeing of the game is evolving.
For example, this is what one of my favourite former players, Tommy Martyn of St Helens, had to say on Facebook.
“Well for the first time ever I’ve turned the Sky game off. I’ve loved this game since I can ever remember, the Rugby Football League should hang their heads in shame.
“You’ve absolutely wrecked our once outstanding game with insufficient and inconsistent refereeing and video officiating and new rules made by people who have probably never even played the game. Match review panels who hand out bans like sweets and turn blind eyes on ones that should be banned and you wonder why people are so negative about our game and we’re only just into the 2nd game of the season.
“Where the hell does the game go from here?”
To have a reaction like that from someone who played the game as well as Tommy did should surely make the RFL pause or at the very least come out and explain more fully what is going on.
The most impressive crowd of the weekend
THE official attendance on Saturday night at Wigan for their World Club Challenge clash against Penrith Panthers was 24,091, with all those tickets having been sold weeks in advance.
But that wasn’t the most impressive crowd over the weekend, in my opinion.
That honour belongs to London Broncos, who drew a crowd of 5,102 for their Super League clash against Catalans Dragons.
Where did all those fans come from? How were they recruited? No one outside the club appears to know how they did it.
And it wasn’t just that the crowd was an encouraging one.
It was the fact that they gave the Broncos their enthusiastic support throughout the match, even though they lost the game 34-0.
Their next home game will be against Wigan, when I hope we will see a crowd that might even exceed the one that turned out on Friday.
Can the NRL succeed in Las Vegas?
THIS weekend the NRL will decamp to Las Vegas to start its new season (see page 30).
It has taken four of its leading clubs to the famous gambling city and so far has sold more than 30,000 tickets for the double-header that will be played at the Allegiant Stadium, which hosted the Super Bowl earlier this month.
The NRL is not taking these games as a one-off exercise.
It has a five-year agreement with the stadium owners and if the first games are successful, we will no doubt see other NRL clubs queuing up to start their season there in future years.
And we might even see the World Club Challenge being played in Las Vegas, because it seems to have occurred to the NRL officials that British clubs would probably take several thousand spectators to enjoy the delights of Sin City while also watching their favourite teams.
The NRL is actually chasing gambling dollars from the newly legalised betting markets on sports events in the USA.
If it can interest Americans in its competition, including selling more subscriptions to its My NRL streaming service, the financial benefits could potentially be very significant indeed.
A French front row
A LITTLE bit of history may have been created at Hull KR on Friday night, when Leeds Rhinos picked two French prop forwards – Justin Sangaré and Mickaël Goudemand – in their starting lineup.
Has a British side ever before had two French props starting a game together?
I can’t think of any examples, and I would doubt whether it’s ever happened.
This Thursday Sangaré and Goudemand will be going to Leeds United’s training ground to meet their compatriots Illan Meslier and Georginio Rutter ahead of the Rhinos clash with Catalans Dragons on Saturday, with the media invited to meet the four players and run features on them.
It’s an admirable example of cooperation between the two major sports clubs in the city of Leeds.
The Rhinos game is the second part of a bumper afternoon on action on Sky Sports for Leeds fans. Leeds United travel to Huddersfield Town in a West Yorkshire derby clash, kick-off 12.30pm, followed by the Rhinos game at AMT Headingley at 3pm.
