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'Disgraceful' - Shocking NRL game likened to rugby union
By AAP
Coach Ricky Stuart has lashed out at the refereeing in Canberra's gritty 26-14 NRL win over the Warriors, describing the contest as "disgraceful" and comparing it to rugby union. Almost one year to the day Canberra's grand-final dream turned into a nightmare by a refereeing decision, an irate Stuart has taken square aim at the NRL officials.
The Raiders on Sunday overcame a horror opening half hour, including the sin-binning of star Jack Wighton, to claim a 12-point win over the Warriors and stay within striking distance of an all-important top-four finish.
However, just two weeks out from the finals, that failed to prevent Stuart from taking his frustrations out on the referees for what he believed was a "shocking" and "disgraceful" game of football.
"I wasn't happy with too much. It was a shocking game of football ... If we had put some lineouts in from (when) the ball went out, it would've been two rugby union games here in two days," he said.
"Disgraceful."
His comments come a week after the NRL rushed in changes to its bunker operations following a growing frustration with video refereeing decisions.
Stuart's broadside also came just days after NRL touch judge Phil Henderson was axed from a fixture on the weekend for failing to spot a clear no-try call in Canterbury's upset of South Sydney on Thursday.
Stuart was particularly seething over what he perceived as an unfair 7-1 penalty count in the first half, as well as the marching of Wighton, who was ruled offside and binned after a string of infringements.
But he is unlikely to raise his issues with Annesley this week.
"I won't be raising any points. I'll be doing my review. They'll do their review, go into hiding with their results, and it'll just be game on again next week," Stuart said.
"I've been around the game long enough to know and see, where we create a foul, we create an incident, we get penalised. I understand that, I get that.
"But then when you see the opposition exactly do the same thing, I expect the penalty to be there too."
The Raiders were on the wrong end of a controversial six-again call late in last year's grand-final loss to the Sydney Roosters that has since haunted the club and its fanbase.
Stuart stopped short of saying history could be repeating.
"(That) Jack Wighton sin bin, would've that been the same decision if it was a semi-final? I hope not, because he wasn't offside. You can't make that error," he said.
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John, McKenzie was 10 years ago and he only lasted 15 months until the disgustingly unfair affair that brought him down. I thought that if he didn't get another gig over Eddie V2 then he was done. I read that he had been approached but declined to put his name in the ring.
There are no potential Wallaby coaches outside of McKellar unless you have some inside info?
Go to commentsThe way they are defending is sometime pathetic to be honest. Itoje is usually on the inside of the rush and he is paired with a slower tight forward. Unable to keep up with the rush we have seen the line become disconnected on the inside where the big boys are. How many times have we seen Earl rush past the first receiver almost into no mans land covering no attacker. It looks like a system without any guidance. Tome Wright, Ikitau and a number of Wallabies went back to this soft centre as did Williams, Jordan and several others. Also when the line is broken the multiple lines of defence seems to be missing. The rush is predicated on a cover and recovery system with multiple lines of defence but with England you dont see it any more. Fitness and conditioning seems to be off as well as players are struggling to keep up with the intensity of the rush. Felix Jones has left a huge hole. The whole situation was and is a mess. Why they insist on not letting him go and having him work remotely is beyond me. Its leading to massive negative press and is a hot button issue thats distracting from the squad. Also the communication around Jones and his role has been absolute rubbish and is totally disjointed. While some say he is working remotely and playing a role others are saying theres been no contact. His role has not been defined and so people keep asking and keep getting different answers. England need a clean break from him and need to start over. Whatever reason for his leaving its time to cut the rope before the saga drags the whole Borthwick regime down. As for Joe El Abd well good luck to him. He is being made to look like an amateur by the whole saga and he is being asked to coach a system thats not his and which has been perfected and honed since 2017 by Nienaber, Jones, Erasmus and Co and which was first started by White in 2004. He is literally trying to figure out a system pioneered by double world cup winning coaches at the highest level and coach it at the same time. Talk about being on a hiding to nothing.
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