The NRL referees have found an unlikely ally in South Sydney skipper Sam Burgess in face of Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett’s criticism.
Bennett made pointed comments about the standard of officiating this year following his side’s Good Friday 14-6 win over Canterbury.
Pointing to the Bulldogs’ clear attempts to slow down Burgess and the Englishman’s running battle with playmaker Lachlan Lewis, Bennett said Dean Pay’s side were guilty of employing spoiling tactics.
Despite acknowledging that Lewis had attempted to get under his skin and slow him down, Burgess said he was happy with how the referees were controlling the contest in 2019.
“I’ve enjoyed the way the referees have been refereeing the game this year, I think they’ve done a good job,” Burgess said.
“As a player, you’re always fighting for every inch. I don’t mind it, there were a couple out there that were a bit too long on the weekend.
“But we got the win, it didn’t cost us the win, it didn’t have a huge impact on the result.”
Burgess and Lachlan Lewis engaged in a one-on-one battle all afternoon and tempers threatened to boil over when the Souths captain took exception to the Bulldogs No.7 holding onto his legs in a tackle.
While their series of run-ins was the highlight of an otherwise dour game, Bennett was rankled by what he described as a deliberate Bulldogs tactic to slow down the ruck.
After last year’s ill-fated refereeing crackdown, NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg ordered the game’s whistleblowers not to nitpick and head office promised a free-flowing brand of football this year.
But Bennett said teams were taking too many liberties and the ruck had regressed.
Despite their series of run-ins, Burgess said he was a fan of Lewis and described him as the kind of player the Bulldogs could build a squad around.
After the game, Lewis revealed Burgess had sledged him by saying ‘you know you’re going to get found out sooner or later’ after Souths winger Corey Allan denied a try after Lewis was obstructed.
“I don’t normally talk about what’s said on the field but seeing as he’s talked about it, I did say that,” Burgess said.
“I said ‘you’re going to get found out’ because he came in on the lead when the try got disallowed before halftime.
“It’s always a risk when you bump into an attacking lead and fall over and do the ‘he took me out’ thing. It’s always a 50-50 call. You don’t always get them. I was referring to that.”