Adam Cuthbertson: Let's all help out referees '“ and play the game in the right spirit

It is something I have been thinking about for a while and I don’t think many people know what the situation is and how much pressure referees are under.

They get a lot of criticism from people in the game, fans and media, but personally, I would like to talk about how good a job I think the refs in Super League are doing and what could be done to make their job a bit easier.

Everybody talks about refs getting decisions wrong, but, in my opinion, people are too quick to judge, without knowing the full story.

Referees in this country are quite under-funded compared to other sports.

I don’t like to go on about the NRL, but in Australia they have a huge squad of refs and they can afford to swap them around here and there.

We don’t have that, which makes it tough.

But the biggest point I want to make is, clubs in Super League don’t make it easy for refs in terms of trying to manipulate the rules to gain penalties and be successful on the field.

You see it with players messing about at the ruck and in obstruction decisions and so on.

People are consistently looking at ways and loopholes to gain an advantage, rather than just concentrating on playing good rugby league and being successful on the back of that.

Too often when we are reviewing games from the weekend we see players trying to milk penalties, maybe by touching somebody in an obstruction position.

If you get obstructed, fair enough, that should be a penalty, but I don’t want to see players gaining penalties by diving. Moving off the mark is another one, but these are things that can be controlled if clubs are playing the game in the right way, by the rules.

As it is, we aren’t making it any easier for refs, who have a tough enough job to begin with and then we all complain when they get things wrong.

I get frustrated myself, but referees don’t get a lot of help.

If it’s not a TV game there’s just the man in the middle and his touch judges and they can’t be expected to get every single decision right.

They have addressed it in the NRL this year and, for me, the way to make life easier for the referees – which will improve the game as a whole – is by playing in the right spirit.

Referees do a better job than people think as it is. It is not about referees being right or wrong; they referee games how they have been instructed or by the rules.

They are human and they will make mistakes, but people are way too critical and there’s too much focus on referees. The game should be all about the players; they are the ones who win or lose matches.

Having the video ref puts a lot of focus on the match officials and I think there’s two possible ways to go with that – either have one at every game so every decision is scrutinised and the right call is made every time, or get rid of them all together.

It is better to get it right, obviously. There is a lot riding on games and some decisions are more important than others.

With promotion and relegation, people’s livelihoods are on the line and nobody would want anyone to lose their job because of a wrong call. Going forward, I think a lot more money has to be put into helping referees, not only to get a bigger squad, but also to strengthen them.

We need to get more people interested in taking up the whistle. I think developing the women’s game will help with that, because it will broaden the sport’s appeal.

I’ve heard a bit about Tara Jones, who is captain of St Helens in the Women’s Super League. She is also a referee and I think that’s a good thing. Playing the game will help her when she’s refereeing and I think it’s important we get the best people for the job, regardless of gender.

Finally, Leeds Rhinos women are back on the field on Sunday away to Wigan Warriors.

I will be with the men’s team at Hull KR so can’t be there, but my assistant-coaches, David and Anthony Gibbons, will be in charge and I’m sure they and the girls will do the club proud again and build on the good start they made against Bradford Bulls.