After a solid performance officiating the preliminary games across several divisions at last week’s Federation of International Touch World Cup in Coffs Harbour, Greatbatch earned the right to control the men’s open bronze medal game.

Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) 8-7 win over South Africa became a side note of the clash for Greatbatch, who earned his international ranking as a result of the appointment. He was ranked number 21 in the world after the World Cup.

“I’m very happy with it, the final I refereed was the quickest game I’ve ever been involved with, and it was great experience,” Greatbatch said.

“There was only 12 open spots on offer, and I’ve got myself inside the top 25. There are people who have refereed at two and three World Cups in that group, so I’m pretty proud to be a part of it.”

Greatbatch opened the tournament refereeing two men’s open games, Wales versus Malaysia and New Zealand’s clash with PNG.

He officiated four more games in that division, South Africa’s clashes with Fiji and Japan, Ireland’s game against Malaysia and Germany’s fixture against the Netherlands, PNG’s men’s 35s game against Fiji and Australia’s mixed open victory over PNG before being appointed to the final.

“The language barrier did become a problem sometimes, as I thought it would,” he said.

“At one stage I had Fiji and Japan, and that was tough. There was a lot of pointing and waving my hands around but we got the message across eventually.

“That was a good challenge, one which we overcame pretty well I thought.”

Greatbatch, a member of the NRL Referees Academy, said considering he had just turned 18 the time was nigh to consider putting touch on the backburner to focus on a career in rugby league.

“I’m very proud to have represented my country, and refereed a World Cup at 18,” he said, just prior to boarding a plane bound for the Hong Kong International Touch Championships.

“I’d still love to do a Trans-Tasman [Test series], but I think I need to seriously start thinking about what I want to do and where I want to be in terms of rugby league, but we’ll see how it all goes.”