Phil Bentham, Richard Silverwood, Steve Ganson, Thierry Alibert, Ben Thaler, James Child & Robert Hicks are the full time referee's.
Ian Smith is now the match officials coach as he retired a couple of years ago from active refereeing. Tim Roby has done a few SL games to cover when others have been injured/suspended.

Being an ex referee (I finished a couple of years ago due to injuries and other personal reasons) I don't like how the game is being run with the match officials. You don't have enough officials to cover all the games at the pro and amateur level. Most officials who do acadamy games also have to cover the NCL and local open age & youth games. I know officials having to do 5 or 6 games a week. plus you have training and meetings to attend. Somewhere around all this you have to work and have some form of social life.

In SL I don't agree with having only James Child & Robert Hicks running a line on a friday night and then refereeing on a sunday. why can't the rest of the full time officials do this? Also this is denying up and coming officials the chance to gain experience in the pressure of SL.

It's not an easy job to do but most people understand this. We need to give others the opportunities to officiate in the top league. If you don't give them this oportunity then how can they be expected to step up when Steve Ganson & Richard Silverwood eventually retire? It's exactly the same as being the coach of a team. Give the younger guys a chance in a lesser game and see how they cope. If they do well give them more matches and if not then don't.

A way to improve the consistancy of decisions being made is to get rid of laws that are open to an individuals interpritation. Those that attended the Bullbuilder "Meet the ref" evening will know the the touch judges are constantly communicating with the referee. They don't need to wave a flag anymore so it can look like they're doing s*d all.

It is a rewarding job to do and you don't get a better view of the match. I have alot of respect for someone to do the job.

....but have you ever opened the door to check?

It would be a meaningless check

Not sure we are all talking about the same thing. I suspect what most people have in mind in the context of this discussion is that tiny part of the electromagnetic spectrum which our eyes can detect, i.e. "visible light".

The fridge light would continue to "shine" even when off. A human observer would say the light was off, but unless it was cooled to absolute zero it would always continue to emit radiation, which would (for example) be readily visible through an infrared camera.

We can't see it due to the very narrow range of our eyes, but a light bulb which is off, and cooled to a mere zero degrees C is in terms of radiation an extremely bright object.

The converse is often observed in many RL touch judges, where frequently, there's a light on, but no-one home.

Honest opinion? Capitalist poseurs. Fook 'em.

What if those in the hot air balloon have escaped from capitalist tyranny in a balloon made from used toilet tissue stuck together with mucus, the basket made from hand woven coppiced willow from a disabled lesbian workers' co-operative, powered by methane recovered from a community anearobic digestion unit with carbon capture & heat reclamation on the balloon?

Kosovans? Fook 'em.