Enter Butler. He was also the TMO involved in the Warriors-Knights schemozzle but, while the referee that day, Ashley Klein, was stood down for the NRL grand final, Butler remained safe and warm in his bunker. Happily for this uber-Australian event, that final did not involve the awkwardness of including a New Zealand team.
In the test, Butler went into detective mode, correctly spying Papali’i slightly inside the 10m circle and sending the news to referee Adam Gee, who ruled out the try. Now, I’ve seen some dumb rules in my time, though it must be said that rugby union still wins the dopey laws battle ahead of league (rolling mauls and scrum penalties, anybody?).
Papali’i was indeed inside the 10m circle, but was nowhere near the ball. He didn’t touch Trbojevic; he had no influence on the play whatsoever. So why look so keenly for, as Webster said, “ways to take it off us”?
New Zealand players look on as Australia convert a try during last night’s Rugby League World Cup opener in Sydney. Photo / Photosport
This same situation arises in other sports, notably football. In the English Premier League, a goal can be scored with a player in an offside position (which is technically what Papali’i was). If that offside player does not affect how the ball entered the net, the goal is allowed.
That discretion is inherent in all sports, including league. Hands up all those who think such discretion would have been activated had this been an Australian try? Yep, thought so. I thought I felt the country tip on its axis a bit as the wind caught all the upraised hands.
Rugby league has done a great job – better than rugby union – of ensuring its laws promote entertainment and game flow. However, sometimes it goes too far – like the mysterious “six again” rule when the defending team infringes somehow and the attacking team get six more tackles.
Someone rings a bell – I’m not kidding – and there is no explanation, no penalty, no pause, just ding-dong and carry on. No point bothering the fans with explanations; they wouldn’t know their elbows from their earholes. Better to dish up instant gratification. Entertainment trumps edification. Oh, look, they’ve scored. Hooray! Wave flags, no way to inquire whether it was justified.
The Papali’i penalty flies in the face of this don’t-halt-the-game-at-all-costs approach. However, it’s clearly okay to stop in certain circumstances – and having all the officials from the home country unfortunately brings to mind George Orwell’s Animal Farm: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”
Yes, the test was a thriller and, to be fair, the Kiwis found other ways to lose after dominating. Throwing two passes for long-range intercept tries is not recommended as a winning tactic. Webster, after his “ways to take it off us” comment, also allowed that the Warriors had enough opportunities to win the game anyway – though there was some toeing the party line there.
If you’re wondering why there aren’t neutral officials for league internationals, so am I. It’s a World Cup, for Pete’s sake – not a World Cup with “Made For Australia” stamped on the trophy. There were three English refs who could have been involved, including one regarded as the best in the UK. They were shunted off to other games (Papua New Guinea v France; Fiji v Cook Islands; and the England-Wales women’s match).
Weird. Rugby at least has an international team of neutral refs so that columns like this one can’t be written. So come on, rugby league, tidy up this nonsense if you want your World Cup to be taken seriously. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie … why, why, why?
Paul Lewis writes about rugby, cricket, league, football, yachting, golf, the Olympics and Commonwealth Games.