Kristian Woolf highlights officiating as key setback in England series

Former St Helens boss Kristian Woolf isn’t used to losing back to back games in this country after conquering all before him in Super League but former Wigan Warriors boss Shaun Wane and his England side have now twice masterminded the defeat of Woolf’s Tonga in two weeks.

Many expected the two teams to meet at the World Cup as they did in the 2017 World Cup with a superb semi-final seeing England book their place in the final but a defeat to Samoa denied Tonga a place in the semi-finals last year.

Tonga’s woes have continued at Super League grounds after that defeat at Warrington Wolves’ Halliwell Jones. They have now lost this series before the final test with a defeat to England 22-18 at St Helens’ Totally Wicked Stadium kicking things off.

Hull KR halfback Mikey Lewis scored on debut after creating a try for Toby King before a Tom Johnstone brace wrapped things up. After this game, Woolf and his side irked Wane with their complaints about the pitch and the officiating.

This led to impassioned statements from Shaun Wane which have been attributed as the lead cause for their second test win at Huddersfield with a Matty Ashton brace giving them the win.

However, still Woolf wasn’t one to completely accept the defeat speaking about how the game was officiated differently to games in Australia.

He said: “We spoke to the referees through the week and the question was, ‘does England need to get off quicker or do we need to stay on longer’ and we were told that we need to stay on longer.

“So at the end of the day it’s a little bit different over here than what it is in the NRL and it’s something that our blokes need to adjust to.

“It’s massive difficulty. When you talk about the ruck, the ruck is so fast and so squeaky clean in Australia that you get penalised there really quickly. It’s different over here.

“When you’re playing 24 rounds and finals under one condition or under one set of rules and then they’re a little bit different.”

As we have seen from Shaun Wane in recent times, these comments are only likely to spur him and England on as they chase a series whitewash at the expense of Woolf and Tonga.