Rugby league match officials are responsible for fairly enforcing the Laws of the Game from a neutral point of view during a match of rugby league football and imposing penalties for deliberate breaches of these Laws. [1] [2] The most senior match official is the referee. They may be assisted by a range of other officials depending on the level and rules of the competition.
The match officials may use the following equipment:
Match officials on the playing field including the referee, touch judges and in-goal judges all wear an official uniform of a colour distinguishable from those being worn by the two sides playing each other. [1] These uniforms have no special markings to signify the official capacity of the wearer, instead this can be identified by the positioning and equipment of the official.
Different refereeing systems are in use:
The players of each team should be made available for kit inspection. [9] The referee inspects the playing kit of the two teams to ensure it is within the rules, safety is the main concern. [1] The boots worn by players can be of particular interest so as to make sure that there are no sharp edges. [1] The strapping worn by some players has also been scrutinised. [10]
The referee organises a coin toss with the captains of the two teams playing to decide which team kicks off and which end they play at from kick-off.
Referees may take disciplinary action from the moment they enter the playing field until the moment they leave it after they have blown their whistle to signal full-time. [1] The referee may blow for half time and full-time when those periods have elapsed, or after hearing the hooter if responsibility has been delegated. [11]
Potential top level referees must first pass refereeing exams set by a governing body, such as the Rugby Football League in the United Kingdom, before officiating at progressively more senior levels of the sport, gaining experience in amateur competitions and then moving onto the professional leagues where they will progress to the top if good enough. [7] Referees need to be "very fit", with physical training being a requirement at a professional level of competition. [7] Good communication skills, an ability to "handle top athletes with respect and authority" and being able to operate under pressure and scrutiny have been cited as by Stuart Cummings, a former referee, as skills needed to control a game. [7]
Full-time referees have been used in the Super League professional competition since 2007. [6]
The referee having made a decision should indicate that decision by using a signal. [12] [13]
Two touch judges are used in a rugby league game. [14] They move along each touch line following play. Their main function is to judge when the ball or a player carrying the ball has gone into touch. They also stand together behind the goal posts to judge whether conversions or penalty kicks at goal have been successful. [14]
The touch judges cannot stop play but can signal the referee to enable them to assist the referee. [15]
The video referee may be called upon by the referee to examine the play in possible tries. In the Super League competition they can examine play from the preceding play-the-ball. A video referee may also be asked to check whether an attempted 40-20 kick has been successful and sometimes called upon by the referee if there is a stoppage to check events before making a decision. Once a decision has been made by the on field referee, the video referee may not overrule it.
The video referee was first seen in Australia at the 1996 Super League World Nines. [16] The use of the video referee has led to new rule interpretations. [16] In Northern Hemisphere competitions, the video referee is stationed at the ground itself, usually in either the TV production truck or a special booth inside the stadium, while in the NRL a group of video referees make decisions on all matches from "The Bunker", a specially-constructed facility near league headquarters in Sydney modeled after similar instant-replay rooms used by American sports leagues like MLB or the NHL. [17]
In-goal judges may be used if no video referee system is present at a match to assist the referee in his decision making.
The referee shall keep the time during a game unless this responsibility is delegated to an appointed official. [1] Delegation of responsibility is usually decided by the rules of a competition, it is standard practice for professional competitions to use an appointed official in place of the referee.
The British Rugby Football League's Operational Rules, for example, require the home team to provide a timekeeper for first team games with the away team being entitled to bring their own to sit alongside their opponent's representative. [9] [11] The timekeepers signal half time and full-time as well as extra time periods if they are played. [18] [19] When time has expired the timekeepers sound the hooter, at this signal the referee will blow his whistle to end play at an existing stoppage or wait for the next one to occur. [18]
A referee can signal by raising both arms to a timekeeper to take account of stoppage time and to stop their watch until signalled again by waving one arm above their head to carry on timing. [19]
A timekeeper may be used to assist the referee in timing the temporary suspension (sin bin) of a player. [18]
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