Major rule change ‘massively on the radar’ for Super League after recent controversy

Removing the on-field call in the video referee process is something that is “massively on the radar” of the Rugby Football League after a number of recent controversies.

That’s the verdict of the RFL’s Director of Operations and Legal Rob Hicks, with the former Super League referee keen to see a new system that would allow the on-field referee and video ref to discuss the decision, rather than confirm or overrule the original on-field call.

Leigh head coach Adrian Lam this month urged the governing body to rethink the law, saying it is something “that needs to change in our game”. The Leopards had a spectacular Darnell McIntosh try ruled out against Huddersfield with the video official not seeing enough evidence to overturn the on-field decision of ‘no try’.

Hicks has confirmed that this is one of the changes currently being discussed but has warned that there will never be a perfect system.

“It is something that is massively on our radar, but whatever system you have there will always be some element of subjectivity,” said Hicks, who took charge of two Challenge Cup Finals, two Grand Finals and two World Club Challenges as well as numerous internationals.

“Video refereeing is not as objective as people think it is. Football has clear and obvious and I was at a conference where a football referee said they have to make decisions knowing that decision will skew what could come from VAR because of the bar of clear and obvious.

“In the NRL they award tries and then they get reviewed. That is a form of live call. We used to have benefit of the doubt, but what is the doubt and where is the benefit?

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“I personally would like us to find a system that mixes the two, that allows the referee and video referee to discuss the decision – a little bit like rugby union does – and then if the camera angles don’t give you the best footage you then revert back to what the referee can then say would have been his live call.

“But then his live call will naturally have been skewed by watching the pictures he has seen because he has never committed to something live.”

Hicks believes there is no perfect process for using video technology across all sports but hopes that rugby league can develop a more common-sense approach to come to the most accurate decision as quickly as possible.

“We have seen over the last few weeks a number of decisions where the live call has skewed the outcome one way or another,” Hicks adds, on the latest SOM Talks: Referees podcast, due for release next week.

“Umpire’s call in cricket is there and there can be 1mm either side and if the umpire has given him out he is out and if he has not he is not. There is always going to be something – we can’t have a perfect system.

“But I would like us to really reflect on what we could have as a different type of system that allows us two experts, one who had a live view of it and one who is looking at replays, discussing it between themselves with footage there and then making an outcome. But what I don’t want that to then do is end up in three or four-minute video calls.”

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