NRL head of football Graham Annesley says he’s not surprised Wayne Bennett and his Rabbitohs were unaware of the ‘downtown’ ruling that cost them a potential try-scoring opportunity in their loss to the Panthers, but has refuted the possibility of similar instances flying under the radar.
Bennett said he was “dumbfounded” by the technical ruling on forward Mark Nicholls which spoiled a threatening play for South Sydney with the match in the balance in their eventual 25-12 loss on Friday night.
Locked at 12-all early in the second half, Nicholls was pulled up by the bunker when he recovered the ball from Stephen Crichton on a kick return deep in Panthers territory.
The bunker had found Nicholls in breach of a ‘downtown’ offside – a scenario in which players who are in front of the kicker cannot advance past the point of the previous play-the-ball until the ball has passed the offside players.
The rare stipulation left Bennett baffled at full-time, claiming Nicholls had “done it all his career, so many others have.”
“I just don’t know where it’s come from,” Bennett said.
“No one has any idea in that changeroom. No one could believe it. So many of them are all guilty of it.”
But clearing the air in today’s weekly briefing, Annesley said he could sympathise with Bennett’s befuddlement, owing to how rare a situation it was.
“I don’t think it happens regularly because players are pretty much attuned to the fact that you don’t go downfield until the ball has been played,” Annesley said.
“A kick is usually first pass off the ruck, so there isn’t a lot of time to get downfield before the ball is kicked.
“Does it surprise me (that coaches and players aren’t aware of the rule)? No, it doesn’t, and I’m not being critical of the coaches or players by saying it doesn’t surprise me if they’re not aware of it. It’s not probably front of mind for them because it’s not a rule we see very often.
“There are lots of rules we often don’t see on a regular basis, but they’re rules nonetheless.
“I saw Wayne Bennett in the press conference and he was sort of scratching his head about it. Again, that’s fine. He wasn’t saying the referee was wrong or anything like that. He just said that he was unsure about what happened.”
Asked about the possibility of similar instances of downtowns having been missed by officials, Annesley was firm.
“It does happen, referees and touch judges do call it, and players will drop out of it. It’s no different to an offside play, except that there is a different rule to whether you can be placed onside or not,” Annesley said.
“If players drop out or wait, or stop, or wait until the next play-the-ball before they get involved then nothing comes of it. But I wouldn’t say you see it a lot. I just don’t think it’s a play that teams play for. So, usually it doesn’t happen.
“But, of course, there will be some instances that we’ll never even notice because referees don’t act on it because it doesn’t affect the play.”
No official complaint was lodged by the Rabbitohs over the decision.