St Helens coach slams ‘lack of consistency’ in Super League refereeing

St Helens coach Paul Wellens has insisted that match officials and the Match Review Panel are ‘not seeing things the same way’ – before admitting he has sympathy with Steve McNamara’s controversial comments over the weekend.

McNamara became the latest high-profile Super League coach to express his frustration over consistency in how the game is refereed. His side failed to receive a single in-play penalty during their Challenge Cup semi-final defeat to Hull KR on Saturday afternoon.

And Wellens, who has himself been outspoken about a number of decisions this year – the most recent of which was Lewis Murphy’s sin-binning at Magic Weekend – admits he is growing increasingly frustrated with what he believes is a lack of consistency in the way the rules are applied from game to game.

“What I will say is like Steve and many other coaches, we have dialogue with referees on a regular basis around instances within any particular game. There’s got to be an understanding from us as coaches that referees won’t get every decision correct, I will say that.

“But what we all strive for and get frustrated by is the lack of consistency in the way the rules are applied from one game to the next or one team to the next. I think we’ve been on the wrong end of a few decisions recently.”

Wellens then admitted the game needs clarity over some of the controversial decisions that have been made in recent weeks: including Murphy’s yellow card.

“It’s quite clear to see that the MRP and referees aren’t seeing things the same way,” he said.

“Those discussions need to take place so we get some clarity over what decisions are being made. I watched the Challenge Cup semi-finals, where things surrounding head contact got put on report.

“Why couldn’t Lewis have been put on report? It’s a lack of consistency. I don’t expect referees to get everything right, for the record.”

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