Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan was left fuming with the standard of officiating after the Sharks’ hopes of winning the World Club Challenge were ended by Wigan.
The Super League champions ran out 22-6 winners at the DW Stadium on Monday morning [AEDT] as the NRL premiers were well-beaten after putting in a disjointed performance on the international stage.
While acknowledging Wigan were deserved winners, Flanagan could not hide his frustration after full-time with the way the match was policed as his players looked visibly confused with a number of big decisions.
“Credit to Wigan, they hung in there. We didn’t execute real well, we had a lot of errors in the play the ball and passes out of dummy half. You don’t want to take any credit away from the winners but we were our own worst enemy a lot of the time today,” he said.
“I want to congratulate Wigan on a fantastic performance. Whatever was dished up they played to it. [But] I’ll be glad to get back to Australia and have the two referee system. I thought it was awful today, to tell you the truth. The 10 metres wasn’t 10 metres. I think Wigan were frustrated with some of the decisions as well because they were inconsistent and as a game we want to be consistent. But once again, they were too good, way too good.”
Cronulla land back in Australia on Wednesday morning with a week to prepare for their round one clash against Brisbane at Southern Cross Group Stadium.
Flanagan said the Sharks still had some work to do before the season opener.
“We haven’t played a competition game so it’s a bit different for us at the moment just coming off our pre-season. But what a way for us to go into our season. That was a physical game and I’m really pleased that we came over and we should be in good shape to go into our first competition game,” he said.
“We’ve enjoyed our time. [It’s a] fantastic stadium, fantastic supporters and hopefully we’re back again next year.”
Aquinas Colts junior Jayden Brailey made his debut for the Sharks, starting at hooker with Nu Brown named on the bench as Cronulla began life without Michael Ennis. Gerard Beale was outstanding at fullback with utility forward Kurt Capewell and youngster Jesse Ramien forced onto the wings with Cronulla without their three top try scorers from last season – Valentine Holmes (hamstring), Sosaia Feki (knee) and Ben Barba (released).
The Sharks lacked discipline in the first half and were on the end of a hefty penalty count. They also lacked fluency in attack, rarely threatening Wigan’s line.
Cronulla players appeared frustrated with a number of interpretations from match officials throughout the contest and were on the end of an 11-7 penalty count.
The most contentious decisions surrounded match officials not awarding first half tries to Luke Lewis and Capewell.
Lewis appeared to have scored legitimately from a James Maloney kick, only for it to be chalked off after Ramien was ruled offside at the kick and to have encroached within 10 metres of the ball, even though he was not directly involved in play.
Capewell also looked to have scored from a kick with his effort originally ruled no try for a knock on. After no knock on was found, the Sharks were again ruled against with Capewell adjudged to have grounded the ball on the sideline.
