Daryl Powell urges Super League to follow NRL’s video referee approach with ‘frustrations’ aired

Wakefield boss Daryl Powell has urged Super League to adopt the NRL’s approach to the video refereeing process after more delays during Trinity’s win at Leigh Leopards on Friday night.

Newly-promoted Wakefield were 40-12 winners at the Leopards’ Den, maintaining their 100% record on the road to move level on points with the top six, at least temporarily.

But the win didn’t come without further frustration for all involved surrounding the video referee, on this occasion being Chris Kendall.

When he was called into play, the game was delayed, most noticeably so for a Wakefield try right on the half-time hooter which was eventually given.

Daryl Powell urges Super League to follow NRL’s video referee approach with ‘frustrations’ aired

On-field referee Marcus Griffiths sent that upstairs as a try, but it had appeared it was going to be overturned – and the screen at the Leopards’ Den morphed into a graphic which looked like it was going to read ‘NO TRY’.

Players from both sides started walking back into position for the restart, but footage then continued, and the try was eventually given.

That wasn’t the only slow decision of the evening, and Powell – who hasn’t been shy in sharing his frustrations with the officials this season – admitted frustration was still prominent.

Asked about the delays in his post-match press conference, the Trinity head coach said: “I spoke to Phil Bentham during the week, and the game hasn’t got enough money to invest into it.

“You look at football and the NRL, and they’ve got every available angle. Caleb (Hamlin-Uele) potentially scores in the first half.

“I think it’s something that we definitely need to improve, but also recognise that financially it’s not what we can do at times. It just gets frustrating at times.

“I think the Australians have got it right more than us, where they give the try or don’t and the video referee in the background works it out.

“Twice today, it goes off and it looks like they’ve made a decision and it comes back and they’re looking at it again. It’s frustrating.

“We recognise they do a difficult job, but more investment in that would certainly help.”

‘It’s something we should look at…’

As alluded to by Powell, in the NRL, video referees intervene at their own will as opposed to being prompted by the on-field official.

Down Under, a try is given on-field and if the video referee sees any reason for it not to be, they tell the on-field referee to halt proceedings.

Powell continued: “I think it (the NRL process) is something that we should look at. Referees are making a call anyway, aren’t they?

“You sort of dumb-down celebrations a lot with it (here), so it’s something that I think we should look at, and see whether it’s what we should do.

“There’s a couple of things that Australia takes from us, and there’s some things we should take from them as well and I think that should be an option.

“We’re looking at a lot of clips at the moment, and it might be too difficult based on the technology that we’ve got.

“But it should be something that we look at.”