Consistency of officiating

[catman]

This season it seems that each week one or more teams seem to have major issues with the standard of the match officials in superleague, and this week it’s our turn.
Having been to St Helens this afternoon I can honestly say that the turning point of the game was the sending off of Liam Byrne if he had been sin binned I honestly believe Wigan would have won the game.
I’m not complaining about what the RFL are trying to do, if they want to clean up the game by punishing deliberate high tackles by sending off it is in their prerogative to do so, however they must do so consistently. In the first half today there were several challenges worse than the one that got Liam his marching orders that went unpunished and their have been several incidents this year were players have been dismissed and games have changed, yet some high tackles are not punished and if they are they do not result in a dismisssal.
It is a similar situation with not playing the ball with your foot. There are many play the balls were the ball is not touched yet they are ignored, yet suddenly the ref will suddenly give a penalty in a critical game changing position and the refs decision will determine the result of the game.
The bottom line is that we don’t know what is happening in our game. If a high tackle occurs it could be play on, penalty, sin bin or dismissal and this situation is no good for anyone.

[Maeve785]

This season, it feels like every week brings fresh controversies surrounding the standard of officiating in the Super League, and unfortunately, this week it's our team's turn to feel the frustration. After attending the match at St Helens today, I can't help but feel that the pivotal moment came with Liam Byrne's sending off. Had he been sin-binned instead, I firmly believe Wigan would have had a better chance of winning.

I'm not disputing the Rugby Football League's efforts to clean up the game by cracking down on deliberate high tackles through sending-off punishments. However, consistency is key. Throughout the first half today, there were several challenges arguably worse than Byrne's that went unpunished. This inconsistency has been a recurring issue this season, with some high tackles ignored altogether while others result in various penalties or even dismissals.
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The same inconsistency extends to the enforcement of playing the ball with the foot. Many instances where the ball isn't properly played go unnoticed, only for a crucial penalty to be awarded at a game-changing moment. These decisions by the referees often dictate the outcome of the game, leaving fans frustrated and uncertain about the fairness of the sport.

Ultimately, this lack of clarity and consistency is detrimental to the integrity of the game. When a high tackle occurs, there should be clear and consistent consequences, whether it's play on, a penalty, sin binning, or dismissal. It's time for the Rugby Football League to address these issues and ensure a fair and consistent standard of officiating across all matches.

[Charriots Offiah]

It’s the rules and not the officials who are to blame. After saying that the players have got to adapt.

[DaveO]

One issue I have is the talk of the VR saying yellow and the ref reaching for a red.

If that happened it’s not really on at all.

Wider than the Saints Wigan game I think there are going to be a lot more players sent off this season than ever before and a lot of those sending offs will be for accidental head contact.

You will also get inconsistency and if we do end up with more sendings off as I expect, you are also going to get a lot of resentment as games are decided one week because someone was sent off and the next week because someone wasn’t for what fans see as the same offence.

I am not sure what the RFL is expecting in terms of players adapting due to the threat of a red card and a fine if they don’t. Maybe they really need to reduce the game to a glorified tick and pass by prescribing just a few techniques that are considered a legal tackle because surely prevention is what they want? 10 or 20 years down the line it’s surely not a defence to say “but we sent loads of players off” if players suffer RL related brain injury.

[Suzieb]

It appears that Mr Hicks who has a law degree is trying to turn the referees into lawyers as you could hear Kendall saying that there were no mitigating circumstances what on earth is happening to our sport any thoughts its MR

[Fujiman]

Justing watching the NRL and the difference in referrering is staggering. Dolphins just scored a try and the prop running in lead with elbow and knocked defender out the way to pass to score. Point is it was 100 times more than Duprees incident and not a thing said from the commentators or players and try stood.

[doc]

Having watched the incident back the Saints player turns and dips going in to the tackle so he is in effect leading with his shoulder. Yes, Byrne did make contact , but this was all down to the way the Saints player went in to the tackle. As such I would say that there is a mitigating factor in that the attacking player was partly responsible for putting himself in a dangerous situation. The decision was the turning point in the match as Wigan were on top at the time before Walmsley went through a Byrne sized gap in our defensive line.

[Ipinwigan]

The game is definitely changing and not for the better.
Games hinge on decisions to send players off, for what are accidental tackles that hit the head of the opposition player, who as Percival, go into the tackle lower than normal.
This will always happen, even if they do bring in the tackle to be below the armpit, because Byrne's arms were in fact below the armpit of Percival.
Stains only lost to Salford because of a very dubious decision to send Percival off in that game.
Too many games will be decided because of ridiculous decisions.
Common sense must prevail, as I can't remember many really bad, deliberate high tackles, like games from the 80's, 90's etc.

[Southport steve]

Another point for me is the situation with hand offs. Walmsley handed off a Wigan player yesterday with a straight arm to the head. I’m sure this could potentially cause more damage to the head than other offenses penalized for contact to the head. But hand offs are legal !!

[Wintergreen]

The game is definitely changing and not for the better.
Games hinge on decisions to send players off, for what are accidental tackles that hit the head of the opposition player, who as Percival, go into the tackle lower than normal.
This will always happen, even if they do bring in the tackle to be below the armpit, because Byrne's arms were in fact below the armpit of Percival.
Stains only lost to Salford because of a very dubious decision to send Percival off in that game.
Too many games will be decided because of ridiculous decisions.
Common sense must prevail, as I can't remember many really bad, deliberate high tackles, like games from the 80's, 90's etc.

I think this is a valid point. As you move to a ruleset that requires more subjective decisions then the likelihood of these influencing the result increases.

Classic case are scrums in RU. Even the "experts" disagree on what is/isn't a penalty. England's progress in the World Cup was effectively decided by a ref's interpretation of the rules.

Surely we don't want that in our game?