Ben Thaler (born 30 August 1981) is a professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other tit ...

and one of the

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisa ...

's Full Time Match Officials. He officiates in the

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of ...

Background

Thaler was born in

Normanton, West Yorkshire Normanton is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. It is north-east of Wakefield and south-west of Castleford. The civil parish extends west and north to the River Calder, We ...

, England.

Career

Ben's first pro game was against

Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Sta ...

York City Knights The York Knights are the men's professional rugby league team of York RLFC (known as the York City Knights from 2002 to 2022) based in York, England. The Knights played their home games at Huntington Stadium before moving to Bootham Crescent. ...

on 1 July 2001. His first

game was against the

London Broncos The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club in London, England. The club competes in the RFL Championship. It was a member of Super League from its inaugural season in 1996 until the end of the 2014 season, when they were relegat ...

on 29 May 2005. He was a part of a New Zealand referee exchange in 2005. He was the referee for both the 2015 Super League Grand Final at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after We ...

, and the

2015 Challenge Cup The 2015 Challenge Cup, (also known as the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 114th staging of the rugby league tournament for teams in the Super League, the British National Leagues and a number of invited amateur clubs. Th ...

Final at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

. He was the referee for the 2017

Million Pound Game Million Pound Game (stylized as £1M Game) was an annual playoff final rugby league game that decides which Championship team will be promoted to Super League the following season. Between 2015 and 2018, the game was played as part of The Quali ...

, which saw

Leigh Centurions The Leigh Leopards are a professional rugby league club based in Leigh, Greater Manchester, England, who compete in the Betfred Super League. The club was founded in 1878, and is one of the original twenty-two clubs that formed the Northern ...

relegated from

, and

Hull Kingston Rovers Hull Kingston Rovers are a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England, that competes in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby league. The club has won five league championships, and one Challenge ...

promoted, in a straight swap of the two clubs promoted and relegated from the previous season.

International

Thaler has refereed 19 International’s to date: 1. Georgia 0 V 60 France 2005 (European Nations Championship)
2. Lebanon 22 V 8 Russia 2006 (World Cup Qualifier)
3. USA 37 V 22 Jamaica 2009 (Atlantic Cup)
4. Wales 6 V 13 Italy 2010 (Friendly)
5. England 18 V 10 Exiles 2012 (International Origin)
6. England 20 V 32 Exiles 2012 (International Origin)
7. Scotland 18 V 30 Ireland 2012 (European Cup)
8. USA 32 V 20 Cook Islands 2013 (World Cup-Group Stage)
9. Tonga 16 V 0 Italy 2013 (World Cup-Group Stage)
10. Wales 14 V 46 Ireland 2014 (European Championship)
11. England 26 V 12 New Zealand 2015 (Test Series)
12. Ireland 4 V 30 Wales 2015 (European Cup)
13. England 20 V 14 New Zealand 2015 (Test Series)
14. Scotland 12 V 54 Australia 2016 (Four Nations)
15. England 29 V 10 Lebanon 2017 (World Cup-Group Stage)
16. Wales 6 V 34 Ireland 2017 (World Cup-Group Stage)
17. England 36 V 18 New Zealand 2018 (Test Match)
18. Jamaica 38 V 8 Canada 2018 (Americas Championship)
19. Jamaica 16 V 10 USA 2018 (Americas Championship)
He was the video referee for

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

on 1 November 2009. for the

Rugby League European Cup The Rugby League European Championship (formerly known as the European Cup and European Nations Cup) is a rugby league football tournament for European national teams that was first held in 1935. Originally, the European Cup had three teams, wi ...

. He was the video referee for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

on 8 November 2009. He was the referee and video referee in various

2013 Rugby League World Cup The 2013 Rugby League World Cup was the fourteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup and took place in England, Wales, France and Ireland. between 26 October and 30 November 2013. It was the main event of the year's Festival of World Cup ...

games. He was the referee and video referee in various games in the

2017 Rugby League World Cup The 2017 Rugby League World Cup was the fifteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup tournament and took place in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea between 27 October and 2 December 2017. The tournament featured the national teams ...

. He went on to be the Video Referee for the Final.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thaler, Ben 1981 births Living people English rugby league referees Rugby League World Cup referees