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The Penrith Panthers suffered their first loss of the 2015 NRL season, going down 20-12 to the Sydney Roosters. However the Roosters’ win was overshadowed by a controversial first-half call.
Trailing 6-0 after 20 minutes, it seemed that the Panthers hit back at the Roosters via an incredible put-down by winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak.
The play was sent upstairs by referee Bernard Sutton for video referees Shayne Hayne and Luke Patten to make a decision.
After reviewing the footage, the crowd and commentary team thought Watene-Zelezniak would get the green light.
Then the official decision came: no try. Penrith were denied the four points, and the chance to bring the game back level to 6-all.
Under the old ‘benefit of the doubt’ rule, that would have been a try every time. Ivan Cleary was clearly frustrated at the situation, and the ruling.
“I thought it was a try,” said the Penrith coach.
The video referee is meant to be called in when the referee is unable to make a ruling, whether it be due to their vision being obstructed, an incident that may have affected play, or a possible offside. However it seems these days that on-field referees have completely lost their confidence. They are so afraid of making a wrong call that even if there is a shadow of a doubt they let the video referee deal with it.
This wouldn’t be such a big issue if the video referee got the call right every time – which they should.
For all the technology, the different angles and the slow-motion replays, there really is no excuse for the video referee to get the call wrong. If it is extremely close and the video referee is not sure, then the call should either be the referee’s first call or a benefit of the doubt try.
The NRL reportedly invested $15 million in their referees over the last 12 months, did that money go to waste?
Whenever a referee makes a truly bad call, it brings the fixture into disrepute. When there are several made in a single week, it brings the sport of rugby league into disrepute.
In the Newcastle vs Gold Coast game on Sunday night, Knights centre Dane Gagai put the ball down for a try which went upstairs for a decision by the video referee. The replay showed a clear knock-on by Knights prop Korbin Sims in the lead-up to the try, but the video referees deemed it went backwards (which was literally physically impossible) and the green light was given.
The Knights converted to get the six points, and went on to win the game 20-18.
Bad calls from referees are killing the game, plain and simple. For all the money that has been invested in referees, and all the technology they have to make fair rulings, they should really do better.
Three weeks into the season and NRL referees boss Tony Archer is already admitting that his referees are getting it wrong.
My suggestion? Get rid of the two video referees and have them as goal-line referees, and make the referee’s call final. What’s the point of having a video referee and all this technology if there is a chance they can get it wrong?
What do you think? Should the NRL get rid of video referees? Bring back the old benefit of the doubt? Let us know in the comments below.
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