Another game, another controversy for the NRL. South Sydney benefited from two dubious calls to hold out Brisbane and claim a remarkable 28-26 NRL win at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.
The Rabbitohs locked up the scores at 26-26 when centre Kirisome Auva’a was awarded a contentious try by the video referee in the 73rd minute despite Broncos halfback Ben Hunt appearing to be obstructed by Rabbitohs backrower Chris McQueen.
Then came the call that ensured the Broncos faithful in the 44,122-strong crowd booed the officials off the ground at fulltime.
After charging down Hunt’s attempted field goal, Sam Burgess was then awarded a dubious strip penalty.
Winger Bryson Goodwin attempted a quick tap only to be stripped himself illegally.
Referee Gavin Badger blew the penalty again and South Sydney quickly regained their cool before Adam Reynolds potted over the 78th minute match-winning goal.
Remarkably a Greg Inglis-inspired South Sydney led Brisbane (both 4-4 records) 14-0 after just 15 minutes only for the hosts to snatch a two-point halftime lead.
Inglis set up hooker Apisai Koroisau (7th minute) and debutant Alex Johnston – replacing winger Nathan Merritt – in the 11th.
Then Inglis swooped on a Ben Barba chip to run 89m and swat away seven defenders to file an early nomination for try of the season.
It could have been worse – the video referee denied centre Dylan Walker a 25th minute try after replays showed backrower Ben Te’o knocked on Reynolds’ grubber in the lead-up.
A minute later Inglis showed he was human when he knocked on a Dale Copley grubber close to his line and Andrew McCullough (26th) scored.
Brisbane hit the lead 16-14 when they capitalised on a remarkable 10 straight sets as winger Lachlan Maranta (30th) and lock Matt Gillett (35th) crossed.
The Broncos were up 22-14 when McCullough (43rd) burrowed over from dummy half but South Sydney hit back through a barnstorming George Burgess (52nd) to make it 22-20 to the hosts.
Jack Reed pounced on a Hunt grubber but Corey Parker missed the conversion to make it 26-20 to leave the door open for South Sydney.
Broncos coach Anthony Griffin blamed his side’s composure rather than the officials for the loss.
“We are finding ways to lose in ridiculous ways,” he said.
“I am not sad. I am not reliant on their calls being right or not.
“That’s the theatre of the game.”
But asked if he understood the obstruction rule, Griffin said: “Do you?
“No, I don’t.
“But their (officials’) calls are their calls. We could have put the game to bed but we didn’t.”
South Sydney coach Michael Maguire tipped his hat to his side for winning the “dog fight” after being on the wrong side of last round’s similarly controversial loss to the Bulldogs.
“We obviously learned some lessons from last weekend,” he said.
Asked about the final two penalties where Burgess was stripped and a Broncos player was ruled off-side raking the ball from Goodwin, Maguire said: “I was pretty pleased they went our way.”
Asked about the obstruction rule, Maguire said: “The ruling is pretty straight forward but it is a bit hard to tell sometimes.”
Maguire revealed pivot John Sutton (quad) should not have played after suffering a training injury.
Dallas
Guest
Yea they lack a Lockyer, walters, langer or Lewis to take control of situations like that, Ben Hunt might be that man in years to come, but at the moment they don't have that gun half back or five eigth that they have always had to get them home.
planko
Guest
Stripping and Loose Carry are getting quite funny it is a bigger lottery than the obstruction rule IMO
Brendan
Guest
Yep that try the week before to the Dogs when Sutton was obstructed was a massive boost to Souths chances in that game. Gibberer
KB
Guest
I dunno how you can follow a team like Souths..they are the advantaged team in the NRL posing as battlers, its a bit ambiguous and i dont just mean psychologically. They never win fair dinkum, always getting the calls from the nutless Refs. They comprise divers, grippers, bad singers, an 'owner'who is a NZer..it goes on..
Kit
Guest
There is no controversy. Ben hunt made a very poor read in defence. People please look at the replay in normal speed. The guy just inexplicably comes out of the line and rushed up on chris McQueen. Now as far as I'm concerned it didn't matter where he hit him because McQueen didn't run at him it was hunt that ran full pace at a decoy so that's it. Now as far as the strip call is concerned this time watch the slow motion replay and u can see clearly hunt go for the ball once again no controversy there. Lets look at it psychologically , here we see a halfback having his victory bound field goal changed down by a forward. So what is the natural tendency for the halfback? What are the emotions going on there? Humiliation? Embarrassment? Anger? And what do embarrassed angry people do? Correct! Something rash right? There you go. So the irate half runs down the big forward and strips the ball bc he needs it back immediately as the game is on the line and no time left. It's all correct and u bronco supporters just live in denial.Nsw blues 13 plus!
Menace
Guest
WE are not blaming the refs - its the stupid obstruction and stripping rules that are the problem but it gives them a chance for a close game..
Coops
Guest
Bit late to comment but the ref got to me When Souths were up in first half, penalties suddenly increased foe the Broncs bringing them into the game BUT when Souths were down in the second suddenly penalties went their way I thought it was a strange referring effort all round Maybe constant criticism has a hand in this view
Mitchoh
Guest
Yeah. The broncos always get the rough end of the stick at suncorp on a Friday night ( not ).Get over it pal.
stillmatic1
Guest
woeful is right, dallas. the officials didn't help, but geez, those last 3 tackles were worse than what juniors put up. where was the captaincy or direction? didn't help that one of those tackles was taken by our co-captain hodges!? I told the missus that after we scored to go 26-20 that hannant would drop it on the 2nd tackle, and he drops it on the 3rd!! then we get out of jail just for Copley to lose the bloody ball on the breakout!! this kind of thing is happening all too often and has been for a few years now, something is not right.
Ghost dog
Guest
Broncos get over it you lost its that simple. Blame the refs all u want but the fact is use couldn't get the job done. people need stop blaming ref whinge and whine that does nothing
Sleiman Azizi
Roar Guru
I'm the last person to care about who wins State of Origin.
Marco
Guest
Good to see the coach not blaming the officials. The rabbits win was deserved.
Sleiman Azizi
Roar Guru
I'm satsified it was an attempted strip but I take your point. When Paul Vautin saw the front view after ranting about it not being a strip, for a brief moment he shut up. Often, when someone has an opinion but evidence shows it to be wrong they tend to just shake their head and repeat their opinion. This is exactly what Vautin did. I suppose if he repeats it often enough it will no longer be an attemtped strip. Like I said, I'm satsified the referee didn't make a mistake. If the rule itself is wrong, fair enough. But that is another argument.
The Kooms
Guest
About time Reynolds had his kicking boots on. Apisai Koroisau, geez he is a good player aye, very Segeyaro like.
Worlds Biggest
Guest
Big Summy lost the ball cold, very bad call. You could see Parker in the post game interview biting his tongue. It was a huge call, if it had gone to golden point the Bunnies would have made a hash of the FG attempt. In saying all this what a great game.
Owen
Guest
You've got to be joking about those strip calls right??? Blatant daylight robbery to a qld team, all because QLD 8-0... Take the 1 eyed glasses off and admit that those calls at the end were an absolute joke and overshadow a great game
Dan
Guest
Exactly - and the Barba grubbber that led to the Inglis try was a shocker. Nevertheless, Broncos should have iced it -they seem to be finding a way to lose these games. The penalty for a strip on Burgess was atrocious - happens in every game and is rightly deemed a loose carry and then to award a 2nd penalty off the tap and decide the game with a penalty compounded the error. Souths were much stronger and consistently put broncos on their backs - but they were given a lot of lenience in this as they were not dominant tackles, but slowed the play the ball. Broncos should have done the same thing....ugly, but effective...
yo
Guest
LOL, Hodges never gets much ball over the course of a season...
Matt
Guest
His attack was no better, the grubber through wasn't on, Inglis picked it up with a staggered defensive line in front of him and went straight through. If Hoffman was upset at the start of the year, he must be pulling his hair out by now being played 2nd fiddle to a player in such bad form. Hoffman *has* to go back to fullback and Barba to 6 because well, he surely can't be any worse then Hoffman was there. They've shown glimpses of brilliance this year. Fullback is crucial in the game at the moment and the lack of someone who is setting up or saving tries is hurting them in these close losses. Hunt has carried the team unbelievably this year, he needs support from another halves partner though. If the forwards could be more dominant, get a halves pairing happening and a fullback who's in more form, they're a good chance at going deep in the finals; which is a great turnaround from last year. An 80%+ goal kicker would ice the cake!
dallas
Guest
The two penalties could have gone either way but that set of six where the broncos set up for the field goal was absolutely woeful, they basically went backwards in 3 tackles which created no momentum and allowed the rabbits defeance to rush up on the kicker and gave him no chance. As a broncos supporter it was hard to watch