They often say that in the game of rugby league, you can have the game of your life and play well as a team, but you just can not get the result – and for the Parramatta Eels, that was the case against the Gold Cast Titans, as they went down 28-22 courtesy of a Titans come-from-behind victory.
In control of the game at half-time and leading 22-8 with the game seemingly theirs, things changed drastically in the second half, with the Eels on the receiving end of a 7-0 penalty count over a 35 minute period, that allowed the Titans all the momentum to get back into the game.
Eels coach Ricky Stuart was absolutely livid at the lack of consistency shown by the referees in this game, and was critical of their performance and the way referees boss Daniel Anderson explains these types of rules to the coaches.
“I thought we were the better team,” said Stuart.
“It happens every week. We’re always a very easy team to penalise. I’m sick and tired of Daniel Anderson coming in and talking to my coaches during the week and saying, ‘Yeah, he understands the penalty that wasn’t a penalty’, and yet it still happens week in and week out.
“You bust your arse all week in preparation – I know what these boys go through, yet to be 7-0 down and the better football team, it’s just wrong.”
For Stuart, what he wants to see from the referees, is consistency.
“There’s no way they [the Gold Coast Titans] were that clean,” said Stuart.
“I just feel for those blokes tonight, because that out there tonight was very, very obvious.”
“The last two weeks we’ve thrown two good passes that were all ruled forward, yet they were just too good for the refs. That wasn’t a forward pass tonight to young Kelepi going through and scoring under the posts.
“The pass was too good for the ref. We have to sit here and talk to the media and I’m trying to do it as honestly as I can, get those referees in here to talk about their bullshit errors.”
For the Titans, they were pleased to get the victory with coach John Cartwright praising his two debutants Anthony Don and Sam Irwin.
“It was good for a few reasons, but the main two was the two guys who made their debut tonight,” said Cartwright.
“They’re very popular members of the squad and I think the extra noise in the song had a lot to do with those two guys.”
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