A Tyrone Roberts-inspired Newcastle Knights defied the odds in the second half to upset the Sydney Roosters 16-12 at Hunter Stadium on Friday night.
Down 6-0 at halftime and without injured skipper Jarrod Mullen (abdominal strain), the 14th-placed Knights led 10-6 in the 63rd minute after two tries from Roberts.
The defending premiers took back the lead 12-10 in the 71st minute through a scrappy Frank-Paul Nuuausala try but Roberts came up with the matchwinner, kicking for Joey Leilua to score with just over a minute remaining.
The shock defeat leaves the Roosters’ title aspirations in plenty of doubt – this was their third loss to a team currently in the bottom four including just two games after being run down by the bottom-of-the-table Cronulla.
Newcastle, missing six regular first-graders, had drawn level when Roberts put Beau Scott through with a flat pass then backed up on the inside to score in the midway through the second half.
Dane Gagai converted, but only after Jared Warea-Hargreaves was given 10 minutes in the sin-bin for dissent.
Roberts was in again three minutes later when Willie Mason burst into the clear, recovered from a failed tackle and offloaded.
Gagai, though, missed an easy attempt at goal to leave the door open for the fifth-placed Roosters.
Nuuausala took advantage to score a lucky four-pointer with less than 10 minutes to go, Sonny Bill Williams offloading close to the ground and Nuuausala inadvertently kicked it through and regathered to score.
James Maloney added the extras to put the visitors back in front before Roberts and Leilua responded.
In the first half, a penalty for a Willie Mason high shot put the Roosters in position early and they capitalised in the second minute when 18-year-old Sione Mata’utia made a horror start to his NRL career.
The fullback, on debut in place of Darius Boyd who is seeking treatment for depression, slipped over attempting to gather a Jake Friend grubber to gift Anthony Minichiello a try in the second minute.
The Roosters dominated the rest of the half, getting over the line three times but having no success against a scrambling defence.
Mata’utia gained some redemption for his early howler with a desperate chase to force a knock-on from Maloney in the 15th minute after the pair sprinted to a deflected Gagai kick.
The video referee’s decision to overturn the onfield try was puzzling, while desperate defence from Robbie Rochow denied Maloney soon after.
Knights coach Wayne Bennett said it was his side’s best win in a season of missed opportunities.
He said he could not prouder of their efforts given last week’s poor performance in a 22-8 loss to Gold Coast in the Rise for Alex round.
Bennett praised the efforts of Roberts who he said had benefited from time at dummy-half in recent weeks when Kurt Gidley was at halfback.
“I said to him the other day I think this stint at halfback-hooker helped him just get a lot more confidence about him,” Bennett said.
“I noticed it at training. I really thought tonight was going to be his night and he proved it. All the indicators were there.”
Roosters coach Trent Robinson said his side failed to take their opportunities and were “out-scrapped in the end”.
But he saved most of his criticism for the referees, saying it was a poor effort from the officials which “irked” him.
He pointed to a held-up decision against Maloney, the sin-binning of Warea-Hargreaves for swearing, the call to let Mason continue on after a tackle before the Knights’ second try and Sione Mata’utia taking the ball dead and not conceding a line dropout.
“You could just feel it – the refs were looking for stuff from us,” Robinson said.
Muzz
Guest
Badger dumped from 1st grade for the coming round. BUT WHY??????????
belrose eagle
Guest
Statistics can be used to prove anything 14percent of all people know that.
Alex L
Roar Rookie
Clint. There are plenty of valid explanations -- and no I'm not going into how data collected over 10 seasons compared against the 23 games whcih Badger has refereed could have a degree of associated variance, a basic understanding of statistics and factors involved will explain that well enough (for instance, he didn't have the Roosters/Knights final last year, but he did have the Knights/Bulldogs game -- reverse that and things look markedly different). Bottom line is that the penalty F/A ratio for the Knights with Badger refereeing isn't much different to other referees of the same era, and last night a 9-4 count was fair enough with the Roosters committing far more fouls than other teams just like they did all last year. A 9-4 penalty count isn't indicative of bias by its very existence.
V.O.R.
Guest
thanks mate
Meesta Cool
Guest
Meesta Hargreaves being picked on bty refs... that has gotta be best quote of the year!. the guy gets away with murder weekly. It was great to see the refs send someone to tthe bin for dissention.. the SOO set a precedence that could have led to officials being cursed and sworn at by every player on the field... great decision.. now do it all the time and this 'talking to the ref' will stop!..
Clint
Guest
So every other team he referees stays within approximately +/- 10% of their average win ratio but the Knights get a +28% benefit and your explanation is that rather than him having an obvious bias towards the Knights, he just enforces the rules more? The average penalty count for all games this year is 13. The count last night was 9-4. He clearly doesn't enforce the rules more often, he enforces them in a lopsided fashion when the Knights play (Roosters avg. 7.5 against, Knights avg. 6 against). Don't get me wrong, Shane Hayne is far from perfect, but if you check out his stats you'll see that all of the teams (currently in the competition) that he referees stay approximately within +/-10% of their average win ratio. For all the accusations of bias he gets levelled at him, its nowhere near as glaringly obvious as Badger's is for the Knights.
Muzz
Guest
http://www.sportsears.com.au/shop/
Muzz
Guest
Get yourself some Sports Ears,VOR you can hear everything.Coaches have them in their box.
Alex L
Roar Rookie
Maybe it's just that Badger actually enforces the rules, unlike Hayne who appears to have swallowed his whistle for half of most games.
Clint
Guest
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V.O.R.
Guest
just saying swings and roundabouts Muzz... it wasn't all one way as the Rossters fans would have everyone think. Any idea on this? "How do we know what JWH said to the ref? Was it picked up on the microphones?"
Clint
Guest
Yeah I can't blame Robbo for getting irked. They have to show up every week and play a team that will bust a nut to pip the premiers. Then they have to overcome shonky refereeing too. Completion rate was good, missed tackles were lowish, 5th tackle options were OK. But running into a gale on a soggy track against an emotionally charged team with nothing to lose while down one man and with a 5 penalty deficit? As Mr Miyagi said "One to one problem, yes. Five to one problem, too much to ask anyone."
Clint
Guest
Hi MAX, Yeah the stats don't lie - Badger has got a major soft spot for the Knights and an obvious distaste for chicken. They are only human but when a team gets a plus 28% win ratio under a certain ref over a 10 year period, he shouldn't be on those games. He's obviously unable to remain objective and dispassionate with that team.
chrisn
Guest
Robinson should concentrate on his teams performance rather then blaming the refs. Newcastle had two thirds of there salary cap sitting on the bench and were the better team on the knight.the first time Maloney went over it was 50/50 .The second time he went over it was 100% no try video evidence clearly showed the ball never touched the ground.Bottom line is roosters were outplayed by a second string Newcastle side they have to improve if they are any chance of being a threat this year.
Muzz
Guest
Roosters poor performance and the referees incompetence and clear bias are 2 separate issues,Elma
Elma Dudd
Guest
C'mon muzz the chooks shoulda been up by 20 at half time but their last tackle plays are a joke . They rarely get repeat sets and almost always bomb on the fifth therefore handing over possession . Yes I agree the muppet in the middle made a meal of it but the knights should never have been within striking distance late in the game .
james t
Guest
Muzz you can't talk mate, the 2013 Gf? please your just making yourself look bad.
Muzz
Guest
"there should of been another Rooster sin binned etc etc" So your agreeing Badger is incompetent doesn't understand the BASIC rules? Oh Dear! It's not about the result VOR but the bigger picture.These Muppets with their bias and incompetence are ruining the game.
Wascally Wabbit
Guest
Manly and Roosters are winning games because they commit far more illegalities than other teams ( slowing the game down, niggling etc). to win games. They are both fortunate that they only get penalised as much as they do.
MAX
Guest
Clint , you have made my day!