The
NRL has dropped referee Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski for round three after the Bulldogs were denied a try because the official was ruled to have obstructed Cronulla's five-eighth Braydon Trindall in the build-up. Przeklasa-Adamski has not been listed as referee for any of the NRL's eight games this weekend but will serve as touch judge when the Wests Tigers go head-to-head with Cronulla at Leichhardt Oval.
Viliame Kikau had his try disallowed after Przeklasa-Adamski asked the bunker to check whether he had impeded Trindall's ability to make a tackle on the second-rower. Replays showed the Cronulla five-eighth collided with the referee as he attempted to chase down Kikau.
So the bunker ruled a mutual infringement - where neither side was to blame for the incident- and the game restarted from the previous play-the-ball. But the NRL rules state that the ref must make the call on the field if he believes a mutual infringement occurred.
"The referee is the sole judge of what constitutes a mutual infringement and whether or not play has been irregularly affected," the NRL rulebook states. "Contact between a defender and referee may not constitute a mutual infringement."
NRL's head of football Graham Annesley was unhappy with Przeklasa-Adamski's decision, stating that the try shouldn't have been overturned. "I don't believe this try should have been overturned. The referee has to be somewhere on the field. He can't just disappear," he said.
