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i hope she reaches her goal. she must be an improvement on most of the ref's in super league that are "performing" now. she must have a better knowledge of the rules than that clown jamie childs, who awarded a "try" for catalans v leeds, when momentum on the the sixth tackle had stopped ,he was pushed over the line then a team mate pushed a defender away with the "ref" stood only a yard away.good luck to her .

All the best to her, I don't even like rugby league but might just have to take it up now ;)

Best of luck Sarah!

I think it's great that the RFL are encouraging Sarah's progress to a Super League referee. After all why shouldn't a woman referee? I can understand Sarah's appeal in refereeing rugby though as football players are plain hooligans. I hope she inspires more women to take up refereeing for both Union and League.

Good luck Sarah - great to see you getting your chance.

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As someone who knows her I think she has all the right credentials to make it! I have been on the wrong side of one of her tellings off and she can handle herself good luck Sarah

Andy x

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@zanderbruce: that's exactly the sort of narrow minded bigotry that is all pervading in the game of wendy-ball.

It doesn't matter what sex/colour/orientation you are: if you can run around a 120 by 70 meter park for 80 minutes and you know the rules that's all that's important.

Does she know the offside rule?

I jest.

Zanderbruce, you are way off the mark. Rugby League and Rugby union have cleaned up their act in regard to punching. Players get hefty bans if caught. If you're referring to the Tuilagi incident a few months ago, the touch judge misled the referee with what he said he saw, so only a yellow card was given. Hence the weak 5 week ban he was given. Had the ref seen it himself he would have been sent off and banned for a minimum ten weeks.

You clearly have reading the nonsense pumped out by tabloids.

@Royal_Gooner: the offside rule in RL has been rewritten in the last couple of seasons and now states (I paraphrase): "if the defending players are within 5 meters of the referee at the play of the ball and both touch judges are in la-la land then everything's ok".

This is why Rugby League is brilliant. First black captain of the national team, gay players able to come out and women rising to the top of their field. Well done Sarah and stick at it.

Good luck to Ms Bennison with her refereeing ambitions. As she knows, she may have to start below Super League, prove her worth and work her way to the top table.

Hopefully she will not have to put up with too much abuse from the stands – at least as a young women she will be spared a couple of the common phrases but she ought to try and get sponsored by SpecSavers so that the crowd know which opticians to tell her to visit!

Good luck to her - makes you proud to be a 13 !!

Happykoppite, you should have added (re Black players) that RL picked anyone (regardless of colour) for their country long long before RU, who didn't/wouldn't manage that until relatively recently. Ours is a sport to be proud of.

I suggest though that she gets some ear plugs..

Good luck to Sarah Bennison. There is no reason why a woman cannot be a successful rugby league referee and all the best to her as she seeks to fulfill her ambition.

i have witnessed sarah referee at amateur level around the west yorkshire area on several occasions, and although i think it would be a great idea for the game to introduce female match officials, they must be upto the grade. Through fair assesment as a neutral fan at games, where i have seen sarah, she is far below the expectations and standards of that for professional fixtures. This should not be seen as a critism though because i do believe with more time and experience at the grassroots of the game she will gain the experience required to make the step up. I just hope sarah holds back a little and doesn't get fast tracked by the rfl for the simple reason she is a lady, because although the positive media this will bring too the game, sarah will ultimately be found out and fall faster than she has rose. But all the best in the long run

What a game - proud to be a '13'.

Oh the football seasons started - no comparison puts it mildly

@zanderbruce. Most people don't mind punches being thrown in rugby if its two people going toe to toe - no problem. Nobody likes a cheap shot merchant..it's about fair play. You give it out, you take it. Not like the crybabies and cheats in soccer who tell their dads if someone stands on their bootlace.

Of course, that's a generalisation but it doesn't seem to stop you. :)

Good luck to her - and #7 is right. There aren't punches thrown on football pitches. They just push each other and fall over like the big jessies they are.

Good old @zanderbruce. Another one of these 'more people watch football so it must be better' brigade.

Punch ups these days are few and far between, but when they do happen, it's dealt with. And the thing that makes our sport proud is that the players will always shake hands afterwards and put it to rest.

Like Sarah said, we're brought up in rugby league to respect the officials and address them as 'sir'. If the players try to push it, like my beloved Leeds do, they get penalised and ultimately made to work harder on defence.

But no doubt @zanderbruce, you'd prefer to see people being hacked down from behind, and being spat at. Much more gentlemanly!

it's the year 2011 and we stiil haven't go female referees in show piece sport? good on league for dragging sport into the 21st century.

***YAWN***

Yet another ridiculous over-reaction simply because the person in question doesn't meet the standard media expectation for the role.

If she can start at the bottom and work her way to being a top ref then she might be as worthy of an article as any of the others, until then stop using her sex simply to garner hits for your blog.