St George Illawarra interim coach Ryan Carr has lashed a “ridiculous” no-try call that proved pivotal in narrow NRL loss to Parramatta.
Up 20-10 at CommBank Stadium on Sunday, the Dragons were denied the chance to go 26-10 ahead after Jacob Liddle was ruled to have dropped the ball in the lead-up to a would-be try from Junior Amone.
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Referee Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski sent the four-pointer up to the bunker as a no-try.
But replays cast doubt as to whether Liddle had knocked on, or whether the ball had been raked out one-on-one by Eels captain Clint Gutherson.
Had the ball been stripped by Gutherson, play would have been able to continue and Amone would legally have been able to ground the live ball for a try.
“You google ‘strip’ and it’s hand on the ball, he strips it out. It’s play on. It’s a try every day of the week,” Carr said.
But bunker official Chris Butler ruled Liddle had knocked on and fewer than five minutes later, the Eels crossed for a try of their own through Sean Russell.
The Dragons did not score again, with the Eels running in another two tries on their way to a 26-20 victory.
It came after Carr was critical about two similarly crucial refereeing decisions in last week’s game, another six-point loss for the Dragons.
“It’s ridiculous. If I say ‘ridiculous’, I’ll probably get memed again but that’s all right, that’s all good,” Carr said.
“Maybe they (the match officials) have to come down and sit here and answer you guys (the media). I have to do a press conference, you ask me.
“I don’t know the answer, so maybe they should come down and sit here and answer the questions for you so everyone in the whole world can understand why that wasn’t a try.”
Carr believed the end result could have been different had the try been paid.
“I’m not going to sit here and definitively say we would have won the game but jeez, it helps,” he said.
“It’s a much different game.
“We earned the right to score that try. It was good footy, we made a good line break and we deserved to score that try.
“The players are saying sorry to me, they don’t have to be sorry about anything.
“They’re frustrated and then they’re confusing. It’s a brutal game, rugby league.”
Parramatta coach Brad Arthur did not believe Gutherson had been intending to strip the ball, rather that Liddle had split the ball as he was tackled.
“Gutho’s trying to make a tackle and (Liddle) loses possession of the ball,” he said.
“It’s pretty simple isn’t it?”
Carr lauded his players for their gutsy performance.
“Are we going to get the rub of the green next time? I don’t know,” he said.
“They deserved to win the game, the boys today. Their effort was unbelievable.”
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