Beaumont: Our game is a laughing stock

Leigh owner Derek Beaumont says the officiating in Super League is making the game look like a laughing stock.

Speaking following the Centurions 38-0 defeat to league leaders Castleford on Monday, Beaumont praised the Tigers but was enraged by the performance of the officials.

“I can’t accept what went on out there,” he said. “I texted Ralph Rimmer at half-time and said I am speaking up, fine me if you want to.

“We need to speak up and stand up as a sport and talk. It is making our game look like a laughing stock, it’s a joke shop, it’s incompetent and it’s not good enough.

“It’s not just our game; it’s the game in general. You talk to every owner and coach and they can’t say anything because they are scared of getting fine. I don’t care about getting fined.”

After securing promotion to Super League last season, Leigh currently sit second bottom with only 4 wins from 16 matches – including 9 defeats in their last 10 matches.

Beaumont was particularly critical of a number of missed forward passes, which he described as ‘obvious’, during Monday’s game and says more needs to be done to improve the standard of officiating.

“We need to get the game where it is not controlled by the man in the middle,” he said. “I can control the controllables but I’m getting sick of things I can’t control effectively.

“I run my business and if people don’t perform I can deal with it. But who deals with the referee when they don’t perform? They haven’t got enough of them and they are not good enough.

“I want to see the referees accountable for what they do and I want to see them get better.”

Beaumont has today elaborated on his comments sympathising with the difficult job referees have, but he has urged his fellow club owners to come together in a bid to improve the game.

“I believe the next move is for the club owners to get together, or even the coaches, and rather than piling a load of hassle at the door of the RFL, to professionally document with substance the issues we believe exist.

“This will include some potential solutions, so that together in unity we can ensure the heartbeat of the game gets stronger and louder, reaching a wider audience.

“I will endeavour to achieve this with my colleagues at other clubs in the immediate future and is the reason I have declined many interviews on various TV and radio channels.

“I don’t want this to become a pantomime about me or my Club or to start to embarrass the game, but to work hard on it and hopefully get the RFL to accept our ideas and move forward in unity.”