SOM Talks Referees | Ep#5 Phil Bentham

Rugby league’s Head of Match Officials has revealed how referees are affected by “poor form” as much as players and has promised greater transparency in decision-making in a bid to tackle the mounting problem of abuse of refs both at games and on social media.
In the latest episode of an exclusive podcast series from the mental fitness charity State of Mind Sport, Bentham reveals his own lowest moments as a referee and highlights how damaging social media abuse can be to his team of match officials.
“There is a person behind the Ronseal shirt, a bloke there or a girl there that is trying their best to make the decisions,” Bentham tells host George Riley.
“The only reason they are involved in refereeing is because they love the sport in the first place. You are not born a referee. We need to improve that (online abuse) and one of the ways we can do it is to make sure people understand the way that we interpret the laws and how our policy works, and that is something we are going to do pre-season."
Bentham is back in rugby league after a spell working as a VAR coach in Premier League football - helping football referees and video referees better communicate their decisions. It is an experience that he feels can help him fight back against the abuse directed at referees across all sports. Two of his elite referees - Chris Kendall and Liam Moore - have already appeared on the SOM Talks podcast sharing their own experiences of abuse.
“If I watch football I have opinions on decisions made by the referees. What I don’t do is go on social media and talk about them and I certainly don’t go on and abuse people because they have made a certain decision,” says Bentham.
“A fan came to me at the weekend and said ‘It’s no wonder your referees get abuse with the state of some of your decisions’.
“Chris made a really good point that he has a right as a human being to be on social media. That is the way the generation speaks to each other. He has a right to be on there without being abused. He doesn’t have to give in to the keyboard warriors which is 100% right. Personally I wouldn’t be on there but they have every right to be on there and they have every right to be protected by us.”
Bentham reveals in great detail the level of scrutiny each referee is subjected to in their weekly reviews, as well as the mental impact of both online abuse and poor performance.
“Sometimes you can just hit a really difficult run where the calls are so difficult and that knocks your confidence a bit.
“You watch a referee and he is looking all the time at the side to the touch judge for assistance on a call he should be making himself. Another one would be somebody needlessly going to the video ref time every time because they don’t have that level of confidence just to point and give the try.
“The worst ones are where you give them trying to be Mr Confident and then you walk back for the conversion and look up (at the screen) and the guy has dropped it and you’ve given the try. You are thinking I was trying to be confident and just give it and that is the one I should have sent up. It’s almost like I can’t catch a break here.”
SOM Talks: Referees is the brand new series from award-winning mental health and fitness charity State of Mind Sport.
Hosted by George Riley, each episode explores themes in line with the unique challenges faced by our match officials both on and off the field.
Our previous series - SOM Talks: Transitions, featured six powerful tales of mental health challenges associated with major life and career changes and remains available to listen to.
SOM Talks is available on all major podcast platforms.