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Opinion
If you have ever journeyed home from an NRL fixture feeling robbed, treated unjustly or planning a social media vent about the incompetent work of the whistle-blower who just rorted your team, you are certainly not alone.
However, what lies ahead during the Rugby League World Cup could well set new standards when it comes to head-scratching inconsistencies and confounding decisions.
Frankly, it is bad enough watching the usual culprits botch NRL matches on a weekly basis, despite tireless training and supposed uniformity of approach, without now assembling a collective that in its individual pieces, will hardly be singing from the same song sheet.
A total of 28 match officials have been named to control the 31 games that are to be played in England during the World Cup. Just nine emanate from the NRL competition, the remainder from the host nation, France and New Zealand.
Most concerning is the potentially inconsistent application of the six-again rule, especially considering that as near as I can tell, its use will not be restricted by field position and applied right across the entire playing surface.
Aside from offside penalties, ruck infringements from one try-line to another are free to be punished. A trigger-happy whistle-blower with a slightly lower threshold when it comes to players controlling the speed of the ruck could well decide a match based on their application of the rule.
Whilst we have seen significant inconsistencies between NRL matches, where some feature six-agains galore and others very few, the Australian crew are generally around the mark, moderating their behaviour towards the back end of games and resisting the temptation to allow it to be the deciding factor in most matches.
James Tamou of the Tigers speaks with the referee. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)
Are the folk with the whistle in the UK doing something similar? Watching Super League matches on television, that does appear to be the case from afar, yet one can almost bet that there will be a host of bamboozled players’ faces when they are called for infringements in the ruck.
Those faces will be wondering exactly why the sanction was given despite them doing nothing different from their normal efforts to slow down the play the ball.
Keeping a tally of the six-agains awarded may well be an interesting exercise during the tournament.
Are the French officials sticklers for the rules and committed to ensuring that players actually touch the ball with their foot during the play the ball? If so, send them to Australia, as it drives me spare.
Of course, that is a separate issue, yet just as the six-again rule may have different thresholds in different parts of the world before patience is lost, as may the simple task of playing the ball.
Moreover, the notion of a knock-on in Australia appears to lean heavily towards a mere loss of control, rather than a consideration of the direction the ball was actually travelling when lost.
Will the NRL referees be outliers when it comes to the application of the knock-on rule, and what of the forward pass, something that reared its head nastily on a few occasions during the NRL season and played a role in the finals?
Will the touchies from down under simply wave play on, despite the obvious infringement having taken place right before their very eyes, and their international colleagues differ by actually referring back to the glory days when marginally forward passes were called back far more frequently or heaven forbid, penalties were awarded where appropriate?
When considered with the murky worlds of high contact, block runners and the always baffling interpretations around grounding and downward pressure, the chances of a hodgepodge of officials from around the globe being even remotely consistent seems highly unlikely.
The NRL spends millions of dollars attempting to create parity, investing hours of time and effort and it still fails miserably year after year.
Ashley Klein could well be an early favourite to control the final on November 19 and he too is well aware of the challenge presented to the officials.
“However, there is still an interpretation of the rules, that, when we get into camp with the other officials, we will obviously discuss so that it is a level playing field for everybody,” Klein told nrl.com.
Phew, thank goodness! I was a little worried there for a minute. Yet it looks like a quick chat between 28 referees will have things sorted in a jiffy.
If only it were that easy.
Let’s hope things go swimmingly in England and the decision-making is spot on. Sort of like that feeling we have when heading to an average NRL game and hoping that the people in flouro don’t mess it up when things really matter.