Super League video referee changes to be trialled this week amid widespread criticism

Changes to the video referee system will be trialled during the upcoming round of Super League games, Phil Bentham has revealed.

The video referee has come under vast amounts of criticism this season for the length of time they have taken to make decisions during games. There has also been some concern about how often match officials are calling on the video referee when it comes to try decisions.

Video referees aren’t solely to blame of course with other factors at play too, but they have contributed to slowing down of the game with fixtures now regularly taking over two hours to complete. For example the first half of the Challenge Cup semi-final clash between Hull KR and Catalans Dragons last weekend was clocked at 55 minutes with video referee Ben Thaler having several incidents to review.

Head of the match officials Bentham admits some decisions are taking far too long and as a result, the organisation are taking steps to speed up the process by returning to an old system. That system was used at Magic Weekend and it will be used once more this week, with the hope being that round 11 passes without too much delay.

Phil Bentham on Super League video referee changes being trialled

“I think just to defend Ben Thaler who was the video referee for the game (Hull KR v Catalans), the first incident he had three separate incidents to check and to have a stop clock on him is probably a little bit unfair,” Bentham said during an RFL call with journalists. “That doesn’t take any from the fact we’re taking too long and looking at the same angle too many times.

“We’re looking at improvements in the way we get replays from Sky, we work from Wilmslow and use a ref box with the referee choosing and selecting their own replays. We feel we were quicker under the system I used when I was a video referee, whereby the director is clued up on which could be the best angle.

“We did that at Magic and I felt it was quicker and more robust. We’ll trial that this weekend. The video ref will be going through the director rather than controlling their own replays on the ref box.

“We have a couple of other ideas in terms of the length of the game. I think the first half in the semi final was 55 minutes and that can take interest away. One of the things that will be going to the laws committee is a shot clock on goal kicks, just to try and speed that up a bit, it’s been successful in rugby union.

“We stop the clock after 1.20 but most kickers are taking up to two minutes. I accept the video referees on occasion, particularly an easy calls don’t need to look at as many angles, we can also try and improve the length of the game in other aspects.”

The introduction of the captain’s challenge is undoubtedly another reason why Super League games have been slower, but Bentham believes that process is improving.

“If we look at an average challenge of two minutes, based on that, that’s 102 minutes we’ve had where the referee has actually got the decision right in the first place that has been challenged by the players,” he added. “That’s another time saving one, if the players could just pick the decisions we get wrong that would be perfect…

“That’s something new though and the players are getting better and picking the better incidents to challenge.”