![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0__AM17167.jpg\")
<\/p>\nInside the RFL’s referee shake-up as Super League speeds up.<\/p>\n
The match officials department is set for a fresh shake-up.<\/p>\n
The Rugby Football League\u2019s match officials department is set to undergo a restructuring, All Out Rugby League understands.<\/p>\n
The proposed changes are aimed at strengthening support and delivering more focused coaching for the governing body\u2019s full-time officials.<\/p>\n
The 2026 season has introduced a number of significant law changes as part of the RFL\u2019s continued push to make the sport faster and more dynamic, with the ultimate goal of delivering a more entertaining product on the field.<\/p>\n
These included modifications to ruck speed and updates to the video referee process. Ahead of the 2026 Super League season, a system was introduced whereby on-field referees award tries they believe to be valid, with the video referee reviewing those decisions in the background. No-try calls are still sent upstairs for review.<\/p>\n
The approach mirrors the model used in the NRL and is aimed at speeding up decision-making.<\/p>\n
Ahead of round four, the average number of video referee reviews per game had fallen from 2.9 to 1.3.<\/p>\n
Play-the-ball speeds have also increased by an average of one second, contributing to a slight rise in points scored compared to the start of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n
With these changes in place, it has been deemed important by the RFL hierarchy to provide the full-time officiating group with additional specialist support.<\/p>\n
Under the revised structure, head of match officials Phil Bentham will shift his focus towards coaching the full-time referees in a new role as Super League match officials head coach.<\/p>\n
Andrew Smith will oversee administration and the day-to-day running of the group, while former Super League referee Ben Thaler will take on a broader role that includes supporting the development and coaching of emerging Super League officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inside the RFL’s referee shake-up as Super League speeds up. The match officials department is set for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-468537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}