The frankly absurd Australian media discussion on refereeing following the World Club Challenge between Penrith and Wigan is not only boring, repetitive and ungracious, but inconsistent.
After almost every previous Penrith Panthers player involved in rugby league media fired potshots at the WCC referee, Liam Moore, the gambit was predictably picked up by the vast majority of a thoroughly unoriginal Australian rugby league press.
Regrettably, this excellent game followed the usual pattern of any Australian defeat in rugby league being immediately attacked on the basis of perceived forward passes, claimed refereeing bias, unadjudicated knock-ons, insufficient groundings, and uncalled off-sides.
It reminds you that of all the major Australian sports, rugby league has the most advanced capability to ruin any important occasion through its media coverage, which in this country is inevitably negative and hostile towards the international game generally. This is of course further exacerbated by a similarly toxic social media atmosphere.
Whether Australians wish to acknowledge it or not (and yes, I am one), rugby league has been a major sport in England since its creation in 1895. Not many sports world-wide can compete with the records of English rugby league.
Few sports in England (or elsewhere) can say they have had attendances of up to 120,000 at a single match and a highest total season attendance of 6,867,189. Indeed, in England, only soccer can match or beat these figures. These are the simple facts which illustrate the cultural significance of rugby league to a large number of the English people. (A total English audience of 30 million watched the 2022 Rugby League World Cup.)
Wigan is one of the great rugby league clubs of the world. Penrith fans of a certain vintage may well recall that this club holds one of the great rugby league records – eight continuous Challenge Cup Final wins at London's Wembley stadium between 1988-1995.
This feat is only really matched in top level rugby league by St George's eleven premiership wins in a row (1956-66) and Queensland's domination of New South Wales in the State of Origin period for eight straight series wins between 2006-2013 (previously inter-State rugby league between Queensland and New South Wales was almost fatally flawed by the unfairness of the selection criteria, which favoured NSW through the relative strength of the Sydney competition).
On the basis of this record alone, Wigan deserves great respect within the world of rugby league.
The sheer disrespect shown to British rugby league generally by Australian media is extremely damaging to rugby league as a whole. Whether at this point the Super League is as competitive as the NRL is not the issue – the fact is, at times, the English rugby league competition has been the best in the world and as such is worthy of respect – as are the clubs within it.
From the discussion following the WCC, it can be assumed that Australian media watchers of the game have a problem with an English referee being selected to officiate between an English team and an Australian team in the WCC. This effectively leaves two options – one, an Australian referee, or two, a neutral referee.
The first option smacks of further indulging Australian rugby league in its desire to ensure it has Australian referees in charge of all major international matches (witness the remarkable selections of an Australian referee, Ashley Klein, for both World Cup Finals in 2017 and 2022, despite the fact Australia was competing in both games).
This is patently unfair. The second option, a neutral referee, is a valid one and one which I have advocated for previously.
The importance of neutrality of referees in international competition is greatly underscored by the media kerfuffle surrounding the use of an English referee here.
In short, neutral referees ensure justice is not only done by reducing favouritism, but, more importantly, it is seen to be done. This has vital consequences for the perceived fairness around any particular international rugby league event.
This is where the current loud Australian media narrative around refereeing in the WCC is so inconsistent with their recent, previous attitude.
Only just over a year ago in the 2022 World Cup Final, Australia greatly benefited from the decision not to use a neutral referee. It should be added that to not have a neutral referee in such a contest completely flies in the face of every other major team sport in the world and indeed previous rugby league practice at international level (see the use of neutral referees in the 1988 and 1992 Rugby League World Cup Finals as but two of many examples).
The highly contentious decision not to send off Australia's Angus Crichton in the 2022 World Cup Final against Samoa, made by an Australian referee, reflected poorly on the game at the time and effectively ended Samoa's chances in the contest. From an objective viewpoint, the optics of this were terrible for rugby league.
Not surprisingly, despite the officiating issue being raised by the Samoan coach post-match, barely a peep was raised about this in the Australian media.
After all – Australia had won the game in the end. Little, if any, consideration was given by the same media to the crucial timing of this most important decision in the context of the game and the obvious negative connotation that an Australian official made a controversial decision which could be viewed as favouring the Australian team in a two-horse contest.
The Australian rugby league media cannot now have it both ways – either rugby league goes back to the use of neutral referees in all major international contests (and sticks with it), or we continue to face the inevitable insular media reporting about the choice of referees and lineball refereeing decisions well into the future.
Choosing the former will allow greater consistency and respect for decisions at international level – continuing with the latter is a sure recipe for more devaluing of rugby league's important occasions and certain parochial bickering over on-field decision making.
