Super League has an easy way to fix video ref conundrum and avoid VAR nightmare

Fans were left kicking and screaming once again amid more video referee delays during Leigh's victory against St Helens to book the Leopards' place in the playoffs

One day I will be sitting in a chair facing a therapist wondering what brought me there.

As I gaze at the bookshelves and potted plants, the therapist - I’m imagining Lauren Bracco in The Sopranos - will gently ask me about my childhood.

I’ll tell her that’s not the issue while perhaps using the opportunity to apologise to my late parents for that 2% in the physics exam and for dropping that massive orange ice lolly on the new carpet.

We’ll chat about ugly matters that continue to dog me. The likes of Brexit and the popularity of James Corden and Michael McIntyre.

But one name will keep recurring and finally the therapist will ask: “Who exactly is Ben Thaler?”

I’ll mutter something about ‘former tight shorts referee’ and then lay my confession on the line.

“Every time he says ‘thank you, I have made my decision’ I scream and the cat runs out of the room.”

It wasn’t meant to be like this.

Cast your mind back to March 29 1996 when Paris St Germain winger Frederic Banquet bundles his way over against Sheffield Eagles as the European Super League kicks off.

Ref Stuart Cummings draws a square in the air, commentator Eddie Hemmings says “taking no chances, wants another look” and rugby league has its first video ref decision.

It was exciting. There was novelty, innovation, clarity - and ultimately in this case, no try. And we didn’t care, in fact we loved it.

Rugby league was groundbreaking yet again.

Compare with the unholy mess the sport over here now faces pretty much every game.

Thaler’s performance - and it has now come to that - during the Leigh v St Helens game in the final round summed up where it has all gone wrong.

Tommy Makinson scores for Saints in the corner, referee Liam Moore is on the spot and gives it but wants a check.

Lachlan Lam is nowhere near the corner touchdown and runs into decoy runner Sione Mata’utia.

Thaler spends one minute 38 seconds and asks for six video replays before he utters the words that will send me to the therapist.

And here’s the thing. If you have to spend one minute and 38 seconds and sit through six video replays before you can make a decision that potentially undermines the referee then there’s something fundamentally wrong in the process.

At the other end John Asiata doesn’t score - according to the referee on the spot. But another set of six replays (all of the same flattering angle) and one minute 37 seconds later Thaler goes against the ref and says he has scored.

And just when the cat has timidly re-entered the living room and the decision has been made, Sky show an angle that Thaler should have seen which immediately casts doubt again and shows exactly why the ref didn’t give it.

Rugby league fans are good at moaning but there’s a definite groundswell of bewilderment and anger right now at the way some elements of the game are going.

But there is a simple solution to stop this video ref baloney before this sport’s supporters become as disenchanted as much as football fans have with VAR.

Copy the NRL. Ref makes a decision and the bunker interfere only when they have conclusive evidence the ref has got it wrong.

It’s usually rapid, it’s invariably correct and it’s accepted by the majority of fans.

Let’s face it, the game has restarted by the time you can summon the energy to get angry.

It’s also faceless and at a time when social media goons whip up dumb, aggressive fury at officials that can only be for the best.

Ben Thaler has copped it here but he’s not the only one and ultimately it’s not his fault he has become my focus on a game that delivered so much more.

Adrian Lam’s hug for a learning disability player, Josh Charnley lifting his child aloft into the firework-hazed night air. Wonderful, life-affirming moments. Fabulous television.

But Thaler becomes the story here because this one part of the system is broken. Let’s fix it.