“Let down…” – NRL chief slams controversial Wigan Warriors winning try

Wigan Warriors are now the Champions of the World after defeating NRL Champions Penrith Panthers in a brilliant World Club Challenge.

However, the game was laced with controversy and not least the situation around Jake Wardle’s winning try.

With the Warriors trailing 12-10, Jai Field fed the ball to Wardle who tried to storm towards the line. The 2023 Harry Sunderland Award winner as Man of the Match in the Grand Final looked to add more heroics to his name but appeared to be held short of the line despite a desperate effort to get the ball to the whitewash.

However, Liam Moore sent the try up to video referee Chris Kendall as a try and Kendall could not find the sufficient evidence to overturn the on field decision and thus the try stood.

NRL Head of football slams Wigan Warriors winner

NRL head of football Graham Annesley has said the process let down the officials in Sunday’s World Club Challenge when speaking to the Daily Telegraph.

“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.”

It comes as the Super League introduce new technology around the video referee with a VAR style bunker that allows every game to have a video referee cover the game though one that isn’t present.