Betts believes Super League refs are getting better

Widnes coach Denis Betts has played down suggestions that refereeing decisions cost his team the game against Warrington last week.

Vikings man Jack Owens had a try disallowed in the game, which many observers felt should have been awarded.

Betts refuses to blame match officials for the result, however, and also thinks that standards are improving when it comes to Super League referees.

“We can ask the question: ‘Do we need video referees at every game?'” he said.

“The consistency that we’re after from the referees, we’re starting to get it.

“Things are getting better. The referees are getting better. I can’t think this year where I feel that I’ve had a really poor performance from a referee.

“I’ve had some poor performances from our players! The referees have been pretty good.

“It equates to being like a winger or a full-back. They might not have lots to do, but when they’ve got something to do, they’ve got to make sure they do it right.

“That’s the quality of a good referee is that the decisions he has to make that have a bearing on a game, he makes them right.”

Widnes are yet to win an away game this season, and lost their last two away trips at St Helens and Warrington.

They performed well in both games, though, and Betts believes that his team are on the right path to start picking up ponts on their travels.

“Everybody talks about it, and we live in the real world, where journalists and the papers and everybody is looking at the table,” he added.

“But that’s an external point of view – you look at the table and see we’re losing games away from home.

“Internally, we know that we’re playing well, and we’re doing some really good stuff.

“If you’ve been around those games and seen those games, you’d know that we were in the fight, in the competition right until the death.

“Those two teams that have beaten us have been in Grand Finals and Challenge Cup finals, top of the league over the last three or four years.

“So to go to those places and expect to win shows that we’ve got a good mentality and a good belief in ourselves.”