‘A foot short of the line’: Panthers legend tees off on controversial call, NRL weighs in on World Club Challenge debate

NRL head of football Graham Annesley says the process let down the officials in Sunday’s World Club Challenge, with Panthers legend Greg Alexander describing the call to award Wigan a controversial try as “the worst video ref decision I have ever seen”.

The Panthers went down 16-12 to Wigan but were on the wrong end of three tough calls, including a howler to award Jake Wardle a second-half try even though he was “a foot short of the line” according to Alexander, who teed off on SEN.

The visitors were also penalised for a Liam Martin strip even though he was the only person in the tackle, while Taylan May was denied a late try that would have tied things up with the final play of the game.

But it’s the Wardle decision that has angered most pundits, with a stack of former players criticising the ruling on social media.

Wardle looked to have been brought down well short of the line, but the referee saw something we didn’t and decided to send it upstairs as a try, which left the video referee needing to find definitive evidence to overturn it.

That wouldn’t have happened in the NRL, with the Bunker able to look at try-scoring plays without being influenced by the on-field decision.

“Looking at it from this side of the world on TV, it certainly looked like it may have been short,” Annesley said.

“They (referees) are out there trying to make the right decisions, but the process may have let them down.

“I’ve always had the view that the Bunker should make independent decisions without any constraints.

“In the NRL, if a referee thinks a try has been scored, he awards it on the spot. The Bunker then reviews it in the background and overturns the decision if necessary. If a referee refers an incident as no try, the Bunker reviews the incident and will reverse the decision if supported by video evidence.

“In terms of sending decisions up with referees forced to make a call, when it’s possible that he or she isn’t even sure, that can lead to the Bunker having to uphold the decision because they can’t definitively prove it was wrong.

“Some time ago, we got rid of the referee making an on-field call on the scoring of tries so the Bunker could review the decision independently.

“In the case of a try, it gets reviewed in the background without the referee making a call one way or the other.

“I know the Super League doesn’t have the same technology that we have, but I think the fact that the referee called it a try on the field and then the Bunker had to find evidence to overrule it is what potentially caused the issue.

“I think the need to find sufficient evidence to overrule that decision is what led to yesterday’s issue.”

Meanwhile, Annesley was pleased with the way clubs adapted to off-season rule tweaks throughout the pre-season challenge.

Referees have been strict on defenders being “downtown” at the ruck when chasing kicks, while players have been penalised for lifting the legs of a ball carrier when the tackle is complete.

“Pre-season matches are an opportunity to get the kinks out and get into a bit of a pattern that will take us into the competition,” he said.

“I think the coaches have been diligent with trying to work with the referees to address the areas that we raised with them during the off-season.

“They’ve all been training for it and we haven’t had any pushback from them.

“In some cases it’s still a matter of the players and the referees getting it right on the field. We’ve had some instances where the referees haven’t quite got it right, so the pre-season is a good opportunity for everyone to finetune.”