If English author Jane Austen had observed Belinda Sharpe refereeing a high-pressure match on Saturday night, she may well have declared that there are two “truths universally acknowledged” concerning the pride and prejudice of a woman officiating her first game of the season.

If there are any small-minded souls remaining who think a woman shouldn’t referee an NRL game, Sharpe answered them in the best way possible with her effective controlling of a difficult match between Penrith and Manly in a round that produced 18 sin bins, the highest in NRL history.

Sharpe, like her fellow whistleblowers, is a victim of two rugby league truths: Firstly, a referee is required to start out perfect and then get better every day; secondly, rugby league is a code of over over-reaction.

Combine these two truths and you have a sport pushing referees to chase perfection in their rulings with regard to whatever is deemed the latest blight on the game.

In a fiercely contested match between the premiers, desperate to climb up from what is now a bottom-of-the-ladder position, and Manly, who had lost three consecutive games, Sharpe blew 16 penalties, reported eight players to the match-review committee and sin-binned three.

Yet she commanded the respect of the players throughout, despite having four decisions........

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