- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
A capacity crowd in Auckland, the six-again rort keeps being rorted and Latrell Mitchell reminds us all what a difference a superstar makes. Here come your NRL Round 16 talking points!
The Raiders get hosed, literally and figuratively
With the game at their mercy, a gale at their back and their Dragons opponent on the ropes… Canberra’s second half produced nine errors, a penalty that didn’t find touch, balls kicked dead and absolutely no game intelligence as they went down 12-10.
But even with all that, were they unjustly robbed of a chance to tie the game?
When Peter V’landys introduced the six-again rule it quickly became a garden of eden for wrestle rorters, tackle floppers and ruck sleepers, and it remains so today.
Ben Hunt’s cynical exploitation of the rule in the dying seconds, coming in late to a tackle to deliberately slow the play, again laid bare that six-again loophole that everyone except the NRL saw coming.
This issue is bigger than just one talking point and is being explored in more depth elsewhere. We wait to see what Graham Annesley’s explanation is. I think it’s likely he’ll blame referee Peter Gough for not calling a penalty.
Finally, New Zealand is home
After 1038 days, what a sight it was at the sold-out Mount Smart Stadium as the Warriors got to run out in front of their own home crowd.
(Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
And after an early arm wrestle, what a way to top the day with a 22-2 win over the Wests Tigers to the delight of the 26,009 in the stands.
This was just great.
For the first time in 1,038 days, the @NZWarriors are home. ❤#NRLWarriorsTigers pic.twitter.com/DpkTd0AXKa
— NRL (@NRL) July 3, 2022
Robbo needs to work on his ref rants
Roosters coach Trent Robinson didn’t sugarcoat what he thought of Gerard Sutton’s refereeing performance in Penrith on Friday.
“It wasn’t a good enough performance from him,” Robinson said post game.
“It wasn’t going to happen in Roosters’ colours. That’s not bias, that’s a fact, that you’re not going to get those opportunities.
“Obviously there were issues there with our team and not the other team.”
Robinson was steaming about an 8-3 penalty count, which included hooker Sam Verrills getting pinged for tipping Panther Scott Sorensen beyond the horizontal – even though contact was at his knees and Verrills was almost laying on the ground making the tackle.
Later in the game Angus Crichton was sin binned after a longer than usual advantage was played for Penrith.
He can expect to be a little lighter in the pockets after that, you would expect. Did he have a case? Maybe, but that wasn’t the way to state it.
If he wants to avoid a financial whack in the future, Robinson can learn from that icon of post-game ref bashing, Canberra coach Ricky Stuart. After that finish against the Dragons the Raiders legend kept it succinct and safe.
“I only needed to see it once,” Stuart said. “Tomorrow I’ll get an apology or justification of there not being a penalty.
“We set ourselves up to win that game. It was a tough grind in the first half, but we let ourselves down in the second half, we lost our way.
“When you’re in a high-performance business there’s always going to be pressure, and when there’s pressure, you need courage. And there needed to be courage on that ruling on the last play of the day.”
A master at work.
You weren’t dreaming – the lights were out
Wondering why Saturday night’s Souths and Parramatta game looked a bit darker than usual at Homebush? Fans in the stands posted many photos of lights not working and stadium management made an explanation of sorts post-game.
Hopefully it’s just one stuff up on one night, because there’s a whole lotta cash gone into the stadium rebuild!
Quick hits
– It’s not for everyone, but I love good wet, rainy footy. I applaud anyone who had the grit to be out in the ‘coastal’ weather Sydney and Wollongong put on for their games.
– The atmosphere in Townsville for North Queensland’s win over Brisbane was great – after the COVID-impacted seasons, that new stadium is rocking.
– There’d been a bit of uncertainty about South Sydney over the last few weeks but their performance knocking over Parramatta 30-12 was emphatic as fullback Latrell Mitchell returned from a bad hamstring injury.
– They’ve conceded seven tries and 34 points in the last 12 minutes of their two most recent games, but at least the Sea Eagles got the points against an Origin-impacted Melbourne.
– The Dragons’ gritty win over Canberra saw them rewarded by replacing Manly in eighth place.
– What a debut for Canterbury back Declan Casey – three errors in horrible conditions, then taken off in the medicab after being knocked into next year by Andrew Fifita’s shoulder. Hopefully he’s okay, because it looked terrible.
– Knights winger Edrick Lee became the first Newcastle player to score five tries in a game as his team toyed with the Gold Coast defence.
– Well played to all for doing their part for the Mark Hughes Foundation round, with the final amount raised to be confirmed shortly.
To the next
The bad news? Round 17 is a split round with only four games played. The good news? It’s the last time for the season as State of Origin gets out of the way.
Thursday sees Cronulla hosting Melbourne, Friday is Newcastle against South Sydney, Saturday is Wests Tigers and Parramatta and Sunday is Brisbane welcoming St George Illawarra.
Not a great deal of import for the finals standings, but worth a look at how Melbourne and Parramatta bounce back after poor outings this weekend.
What did you think of Round 16, Roarers?