RHYS Morgan has called for referees to be given more help at North Premier League matches.

He made the plea while addressing the North East Referees Society in Leeds on Sunday.

Ilkley’s head of rugby has been concerned by the inconsistency of match officials and the high number of yellow cards his side have received.

Tom Milner and Nathan Smith were the latest players to be sin-binned in Saturday’s disappointing home defeat by Billingham.

Morgan said: “This is the highest level of rugby that uses club touch judges.

“Many of the referees are young and on their way up and I believe they would benefit from having at least one qualified assistant referee working with them.

“They will have assistant referees when they get to the next level, but I feel it would help them considerably in their decision making.

“It isn’t ideal to have club touch judges. They cannot assist with issues of indiscipline or foul play like an assistant can.

“I know that I bang on about decisions, but I truly feel we need to help the referees more. Many of them come with a trainer and an assessor monitoring their performance, but help from an assistant would, in my opinion, be of greater help.”

Ilkley will be seeking to register their first win of the new year when they visit Rossendale on Saturday.

The match could see them give a debut to new second row Jack Cleet. He trained with the team on Tuesday and caught the eye.

There could also be a first outing for centre Struan Connor. He recently scored four tries for the second team against Cleckheaton and might have had his chance earlier if it hadn’t been for an injury.

Connor first came to Ilkley’s attention playing for Bradford Grammar School Old Boys in the club’s sevens tournament last summer.

“He made a couple of exciting breaks and caught the eye so I asked him if he would come and join us,” said Morgan.