An NRL player at the centre of a perjury case against a former police officer believes the ex-cop's sentence for lying during a rape trial should have been harsher.

Officer A, as he is known for legal reasons, was on Friday given a one-year intensive corrections order, similar to a suspended jail sentence.

The officer pleaded guilty to lying in evidence during the high-profile rape trial of St George Illawarra player Jack de Belin and co-accused Callan Sinclair in 2020.

"It was obviously a little bit light, but it is what it is," de Belin said outside Wollongong District Court following the sentence.

"What's kept Cal and myself so strong throughout this is our innocence."

Officer A lied in the rape trial about what he found in text messages between de Belin and a contact saved as "Cra

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