Sarah Bennison has her sights set on becoming Super League's first female referee.
Graduate aims to become Super League referee
Sarah Bennison has already made history by becoming the first woman to take charge of a rugby league Championship match and now has her sights set on becoming Super League's first female referee.
But she no longer takes control of matches involving amateur women's teams - because of their lack of respect towards the officials.
The 22-year-old graduate of Leeds Met University was the centre of attention at the weekend when she refereed a men's international between Norway and Germany in Lillestrom and she is thrilled to be making her mark in a man's world.
"It's definitely that," she said. "I did my dissertation based on it, whether there is room for female referees in the professional game.
"I did find that, even though there are women coming through in different areas, it's still very much a man's game.
"At amateur level there's quite a few female referees but in the RFL ranks there are only four or five of us that are graded."
Her interest in rugby league stemmed from trips to watch her local team Bradford in the early days of Super League and she developed an urge to become involved when older brother John began to play the game.
"I was about 11 at the time and we started watching Bradford Bulls," she said. "From there I wanted to get involved in rugby league but I didn't want to play the game. It's too rough.
"I had done football refereeing but didn't get anywhere so I thought I might as well see what the rugby refereeing is all about. I've obviously never looked back and got further and further on with it.
"It took me three years to get to the RFL ranks and now I want to go as far as I can."
Sarah began officiating in junior matches five years ago and now controls the National Conference League, which features the leading amateur teams in the north of England, and the National Youth League.
She is also a regular touchjudge in the part-time Championship and stepped into the breach earlier this month in a match at Workington when referee Jamie Leahy was injured in the first half.
It is a measure of the welcoming aspect of rugby league that Sarah was accepted by the players without question.
Respect
"To be honest, I don't get a bad reaction," she said. "All players respect me. I've never had anyone who has not respected me just because I'm female.
"The fans vary. You probably do have some that just don't want to see women in the game but I don't really hear that much because I'm focused on the game.
"I've had a few incidents where people have said you got some really bad abuse but I never heard it. It's a good thing that I can switch off."
Referees need to be thick-skinned but Sarah demonstrates sensitivity when it comes to players addressing her during a match.
"If it's the first time I've refereed a team, they do ask what they should call me," she said.
"I tell them they can call me 'Sarah', 'ref' or 'sir', because that's what they are used to saying. It doesn't bother me. I'd rather adapt to them than they adapt to me.
"There are the odd few that call me 'sir' and then apologise but I don't mind it because it's still showing a sign of respect."
Respect, unfortunately, is not shared by the so-called fairer sex it seems.
"I used to referee women's matches but I don't now because they don't have the same respect as the male players," Sarah said.
"The England women are not too bad because they're playing for their country but at amateur level there is just no respect.
"I didn't know whether it was because I was only young but I spoke to some of the male referees and they said they also hadn't received a high level of respect from the women."
Job-hunting
Meanwhile, Sarah is job-hunting armed with a BA honours degree in sports development, but admits the prospect of a full-time role in Super League would be tempting.
"There are not that many jobs out there," she said. "I would even take a normal nine-to-five job so that I could continue my refereeing at weekends.
"The next step is academy and reserve grade, then Championship and Super League.
"I'm still at the bottom of the ladder but hopefully these last few games that I've got under my belt can get me somewhere."
