Steve Clark (referee)

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Steve Clark
Personal information
Full name Steven Clark
Place of birth Flag of Australia New South Wales, Australia
Refereeing career
Years Competition Apps
1992 – 2007
2005
1999, 2005 – 2006
1996 – 2006
2000		 NSWRL/ARL/NRL
City vs Country Origin
State of Origin
Test matches
Rugby League World Cup		 314
1
5
8
2
This article is about the National Rugby League referee. For other persons with the same name, see Steve Clark (disambiguation).

Steve Clark (born in New South Wales) is a former Australian professional referee in the National Rugby League competition.

Contents

[edit] NRL career

Clark made his first grade debut in the match between Parramatta Eels and the Newcastle Knights, at Parramatta Stadium on 31 May 1992. In 2007, Clark reached the 300 first grade game barrier becoming only the third referee to do so. At the time of his retirement, only Bill Harrigan with 393 games and Col Pearce with 343 games had refereed more matches than him.[1]

[edit] Representative honours

Clark made his representative refereeing debut in 1996, when he officiated the Test match between Great Britain and New Zealand.

In 2005, he controlled in his one and only City vs Country Origin match at Northpower Stadium in Gosford.

Clark made his first State of Origin appearance in 1999, refereeing two matches including the first ever drawn match in Game III. He didn't referee again until the 2005 series where he was appointed to Game II. In the following series he controlled Games II and III.[1]

[edit] Controversy

Steve Clark has been accused by St. George Illawarra Dragons coach Nathan Brown of bias against the St. George Illawarra Dragons team in 2006, based on a perceived tendency to award dubious penalties against St. George Illawarra Dragons. Brown was subsequently fined $15000 for making these comments. [2]. An example of such a controversial penalty awarded against St. George Illawarra Dragons was in the Round 9 2008 game between Parramatta Eels and St. George Illawarra Dragons, where a 32nd minute try to Jason Nightingale was disallowed by the video referee Steve Clark due to an alleged strip of the ball by Matt Cooper earlier. Even the referee Sean Hampstead remarked "That was a tough decision Clarky" [3].


[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Ritchie, Dean. "Clark puts down the whistle", The Daily Telegraph, 2007-10-03. Retrieved on 2007-10-04. 
  2. ^ Swanton, Will. "How the Dragons called the tune and scored their favourite whistleblower", Sydney Morning Herald, 2006-06-13. Retrieved on 2008-05-14. 
  3. ^ "CEels pip 'unfortunate' Dragons", League HQ, 2008-05-11. Retrieved on 2008-05-14. 


Persondata
NAME Clark, Steve
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Australian rugby league referee
DATE OF BIRTH
PLACE OF BIRTH New South Wales, Australia
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH