Wakefield Trinity head coach Daryl Powell has called for more consistency among officials and spoken on Super League possibly adopting a new NRL rule.
Powell watched his side lost 18-16 to Toulouse Olymique last week in the opening round of Super League and despite his concerns over the consistency of officials, he was clear on the fact that his side had to own the defeat.
“Everything,” he responded when asked what had gone wrong as he spoke to media to preview Sunday’s game against Huddersfield Giants.
Reflecting on that defeat, he said: “You’ve got to move on pretty quickly. It’s an important game for us this week, so there’s no point dwelling too much on it. We’ve got some key lessons to learn and just move on.”
Having spoke post-match about the fact different officials will have different interpretations of what a fast ruck would look like, Powell again voiced concerns over that.
“It’s just a little bit inconsistent from game to game and I’m not sure whether we can align that.”
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He admitted that a larger sample size would be required though he ceded that clubs will now have to begin preparing for referees, as well as their opposition.
“I think so. I didn’t have any problem with it (the ruck), it was more about us last week,” Powell said.
“All coaches will be looking for some consistency, and we’ve got to apply ourselves better to the rules as they stand at the moment. It will all balance itself out, I didn’t really say too much about that at the end of the game, it was all about consistency really, I think that’s what we’re after, and that’s what we’re striving for, to know what we’re going into every week is important.”
One thing that Powell did mention was the fact that Cam Scott was shown a green card late on after copping a shot around the head, something he admitted was ‘tough to take’.
That saw him asked about the prospect of Super League adopted extended benches, as is being introduced in the NRL this year where clubs can name six on the bench, though they can only use four.
The idea behind that is that a back-up half or full-back can be carried as well as potentially a winger in the eventuality of an injury, as opposed to the traditional forward-heavy four-man benches.
For Powell, it’s something that should be considered given the increasing number of players being checked for and possibly failing Head Injury Assessments.
The Trinity boss said: “If they’re talking about more HIAs, and they are talking about them being more prevalent in the game, then it is something that would potentially need to be looked at.
“I don’t know what the looks like but I think if what they’re talking about (in terms of number of) HIAs becomes a reality, then I think we would need to look at it.”
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