News

› Rugby League Referee Interview - Phil Bentham

Polar, the market leader in heart-rate training, caught up with match official Phil Bentham ahead of today's big game to find out exactly what it takes to be a top-flight Rugby League referee...

How much has Rugby League changed since you started refereeing?

As referees we can cover 9-11km during an average game so we need to be fit! Our training, whilst different to that of a player is no less intense. We have to constantly improve to keep up with the increasing pace of the sport using the expertise and technology available.

Talking of technology, how do you use Polar's training computers as part of your game preparation?

We use Polar RS400 heart rate monitors for all fitness training within the RFL's Performance Department. We each have an individual chest strap to measure heart rate and a wrist unit to show a range of fitness data as we train, and the coaches analyse that data for us.

And how does that help you when it comes to each big game?

A heart rate monitor is a great bit of kit to make sure that we're training the right way - constantly improving fitness performance or actively recovering from the last hard training session or big game. It all sounds very technical but anyone can use a heart rate monitor - we use them when we're training at home and send in the data to our coaches every week. They can then keep changing our training programmes so we're at peak fitness...there's nowhere to hide!

Sounds intense! What does a typical training session look like?

It varies - every week there's a different challenge from our coaching team that keeps us guessing! We generally do a recovery session on a Monday, and Tuesday is known as the toughest training day of the week! The whole aim of the training programme is to make officials as efficient as possible on the pitch and our great coaching team combined with Polar's technology keeps us on top form.

Polar are proud suppliers of RS400 training computers to every elite RFL match official and sponsor the countdown clocks at every Engage Super League stadium.