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A referee, if he's doing his job properly, will have problems remembering a lot of what happened during a game.

Stuart Cummings on officials.
Quotes of the week

Boots 'N' All
Wednesdays on Sky Sports

Match officials chief Stuart Cummings was grilled by the Boots 'N' All boys after a weekend of controversy in Super League and mounted a spirited defence of his referees.

An action-packed round five saw a record penalty count in Saturday's Warrington-Wigan clash, a match which also featured a red card for Richie Mathers.

And officials were again under the spotlight on Sunday as Wakefield-based official Ben Thaler awarded a late penalty try which gave the Wildcats victory over Hull KR.

Cummings, the RFL's match officials director, claimed Thaler was in a perfect position to make that call and pleaded mitigating circumstances for the huge foul count at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

And the former referee insisted he is happy his full-time successors are making progress.

"We're into round five now and, like the coachesin Super League, there are some things we're pleased with and some things we can pick up on.

"There's always something to look at and improve the following week, but I'm quite happy with the start we've made."

Boots 'N' All viewers are used to Cummings taking the rap for his refs, so why not put the men themselves in front of the cameras to defend their own decisions?

He said: "Personally, I don't think it's fair to put a referee up right after the game.

"The coaches come on, but they're not talking about decisions they've made - why did I put a player on, why did I take him off - they're just commenting on the game.

"A referee, if he's doing his job properly, will have problems remembering a lot of what happened during a game.

"The way they operate is to make a decision and move on - we don't wan them dwelling on whether something was an error or a correct decision.

"We want them to make a decision, move on, and all the rest will come out in our review process."