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'Disgraceful' - Shocking NRL game likened to rugby union

Joseph Tapine of the Raiders is tackled by Tohu Harris and Adam Blair of the Warriors during the round 19 NRL match between the Canberra Raiders and the New Zealand Warriors at GIO Stadium (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

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.

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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.

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“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.

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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.

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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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T
TT 1 hour ago
'No, it’s not, that’s the truth' - Andy Farrell rubbishes Ireland subplot

ABs by 4……


IF

The Razor gang has given the AB’s a game plan A, B, C & etc (unlike so many AB games since 2016). &


IF

AB’s play 80+ minutes. &


IF

ABs do their individual & team jobs error free (‘ish)  (unlike so many AB team since 2016). &


IF

All the ‘critical V Ireland’ AB form mobile forwards stay on field for the 80min S.Barrett, Sititi, Savea, and Vaa’i swap with Cane when he tires & Tuipulotu comes on. Finau back up. &


IF

The 10's get a better ‘cunning game plan’ than BB, ie his kicky, kicky, kicky, kicky, kicky, kicky, kicky, ETC! (& MacK does have a better game plan). &


IF

Aumua can throw to lineouts . &


IF

The AB’s can remember their lineout calls (unlike too many V England games 1, 2 & 3). &


IF

Williams can be coached to stop being sucked into experienced tactics to drop him to the ground. &


IF

The AB coaches, teach all ABs some ‘soccer like’ drama queen fouling acting skills to make clear to the ref 1 of the most common Irish tactics ie obstruction by ‘stray’ decoy attackers around contact zone (tackle, ruck, maul). &


IF

The ABs have their arm out away if not tackling any, again, decoy attackers  (or defenders) that run into them to try milk penalties as England did (eg penalty  against  Cane the worst). &


IF

S.Barrett can change & captain with assertiveness & presence to even be noticed by the ref (way to passive). &


IF

There's no food poisoning.

7 Go to comments
J
JW 1 hour ago
How can Scott Robertson revive the All Blacks’ playmaking ‘triple threat’?

HAHA don't ask me that! You tell me, if McMillian was the AB coach would he be selecting Dmac over Mo'unga!?!


Look, Dmac is clearly first choice. Razor said BB was a selection "just for this game", Dmac was always leading the two big ones. They rotated BB and Mounga the same way in 22.


Firstly, I'm a fan of BB when he's not gun shy. Do I think he's a first five? Of course not, he can hardly pass the ball 5 meters. Do I think he's likely to play again after being concussed? No, end of discussion.


Do I hate Mo'unga? No, of course not. He was the only reason we got within cooee of SA, him finding his footing at International level was their main reason for success. Do I think that resulted in him being a game orchestra or having played well in black the years prior to that? Of course not. Maybe you were just on the end of the better AB performances fran, outside of those games I'd suggest he wasn't as influential as you think. He has a good kicking game for sure, but it's certainly not up there with Carter or even some current 10s, and it's certainly not much better than DMac's (understand you own opinion still won't say that) despite him having a lot more development and experience.


He would obviously get a great opportunity from Razor if he came back, and DMac would possibly find he can be a good fullback or bench player under Razors guidance, but if you're wrong and Dmac actually performed better than Richie running the show, then he'll having Damien as his 10 come RWC time.


TLDR, JWH is a Cantab, Richie is one of my favourite players, we just think you've got the wrong context in this article and I think you're way off the mark on Richies strengths.

46 Go to comments
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