Leading Super League referee admits rule changes have been ‘difficult’ to officiate

One of Super League’s top referees has admitted that the swathe of rule changes that were introduced at the beginning of this season have been difficult to officiate.

Chris Kendall is arguably the competition’s highest-profile match official. He, like several other referees in Super League, were centrally involved in a number of decisions at the beginning of 2024 that caused huge uproar.

Players, coaches and supporters struggled to adapt to the tightening of the rules surrounding contact with the head, before tweaks were made a number of weeks into the season which has seen things calm down somewhat.

But Kendall, speaking on Sky Sports’ The Bench podcast, conceded that it has been a tough year to be a referee.

He said: “It was difficult. When you asked earlier around do we know when a decision is not going to be popular, there were probably a lot of scenarios at the beginning of the year that we were dealing with stuff we knew weren’t going to be popular decisions.

READ NEXT: 11 conclusions: St Helens shambles, Leigh Leopards the big winners, Championship chaos

“But we’ve got a framework to work to, and that framework is not being implemented by the refferees, it’s being implemented by stakeholders, brain health committee and the people that be.”

Kendall also admitted that the match officials group sensed before the season had started that they were going to be facing a backlash.

When asked if they felt the changes wouldn’t go down well, Kendall said: “Yeah, I think we knew as a group of full-time referees that we were going to be under the pump.

“We’re the customer facing arm of the RFL, we’re the ones where if anything is implemented, we’ve got to go out and deliver it. It’s difficult and we knew what was going to come with that. But equally that comes with the territory and that’s part of our role.”

READ NEXT: How often has each Super League official refereed every team in 2024?