Tony Archer discusses the contentious referee decisions from Origin Game 3.
There was plenty to come out of the game, including a 12-3 penalty count, two players being sent to the sin bin and a try awarded to Andrew Fifita that raised plenty of eyebrows.
The Blues were leading 6-4 when Fifita scored his first Origin try for NSW in the 42nd minute when Maloney's bomb was dropped by Queensland winger Dane Gagai, before Wade Graham toed it through for his Sharks teammate to score.
Whilst the decision on the night went the way of the Blues, many have questioned whether the try should have been awarded and on Thursday following the Blues win, referee’s boss Tony Archer explained the reasoning behind the decision.
“It was a live decision on field of try,” said Archer.
“The question to be really answered is the role of Michael Jennings in the play.
“The interpretation that relates to this incident is whether or not the player is active or passive.
“For a player to be active he has to impact or influence the game and for a player to be passive, he has no influence over the game.
“When determining the role of Michael Jennings in the play, we need to know whether or not he influences the game at that point.
“When you see Fifita take possession of the ball, there are three Queensland players who have also retreated back to the ball and Jennings is behind those players and has no influence on the game at that point. So understand the decision and it being the correct decision.”
Archer also had his say on the two sin bins, involving Cooper Cronk and Andrew Fifita.
“They’re for two different reasons.
“Cooper Cronk was involved in tackling Wade Graham off the ball when he was chasing through on an attacking play. That’s a professional foul and should have been sin binned.
“Andrew Fifita’s one is a different scenario.
“Queensland scored a try and following the try he has run a fair distance to get involved and taken hold of Gavin Cooper’s neck and pulled him away from the play.
“It escalated into an incident that needed not to occur and very comfortable with the referee to sin bin him there to cool off.”
With the 2016 State of Origin series wrapped up, Archer did finish by saying he was happy with the overall officiating from Ben Cummins and Gerrard Sutton.
“They’ve done well through the whole series and I was comfortable with what they did.”
