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One NZ chief executive Jason Paris sticks by his allegation of an unconscious bias against the Warriors from NRL match officials but has backtracked from his cheating claims.
Paris, who heads up the telecommunications giant in New Zealand, the naming rights sponsor of the Warriors, has moved to clarify his comments from Saturday that caught the attention of the rugby league world.
After the Warriors went down 18-6 to the Panthers in their Magic Round clash in Brisbane, Paris unleashed in a Twitter tirade where he alleged “cheating of the highest order” and that both the NRL bunker and referees were biased against the Warriors.
As well as the post going viral, it also reached the NRL, which has begun an investigation.
On Monday, Paris said he had made the comments “in the heat of the moment as a passionate fan” and moved to clarify his statement around perceived bias.
Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
Warriors captain Tohu Harris speaks with referee Todd Smith moments before Demitric Sifakula is controversially sent to the sin bin against the Panthers.
“I do not think the NRL referees are cheating,” he said. “They come to work every day to do their best job for the game.
“However, I do believe that there is unconscious bias happening every week against the Warriors & and it needs to be addressed,” Paris said on Twitter. “All we want is consistency, but we are not getting it.”
Almost since the club first came into existence in 1995, many Warriors fans have felt the club hasn’t been given a fair go by match officials.
Back in 2019, former Warriors coach and Kiwis league great Mark Graham revealed it was his belief an unconscious bias against the Auckland-based club was behind a string of controversial refereeing decisions in that season.
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Graham also revealed shocking detail around an incident from his time coaching the club, between 1999 to 2000, when match officials were caught on their microphones allegedly making racial slurs against a Warriors player, essentially saying it didn’t matter if it was a contentious call because the player was of Polynesian descent.
“I knew that every game we ran out we were playing uphill and were likely going to get a bad rub of the green,” Graham said back in 2019.
Paris might be in trouble with the NRL for his comments but he has welcomed the investigation.
“Take opinions out of it & analyse the video footage from past games & compare our decisions vs other teams. I think it will find that we are being disadvantaged – then we can work out why & take steps to fix it,” Paris said.
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