Roosters skipper James Tedesco has questioned the NRL official’s forward pass call at a decisive moment on the buzzer, denying the Tricolours an opportunity to snatch a win.
After a decisive Stefano Utoikamanu try in the 72nd minute, Tedesco’s outfit were trying desperately to penetrate the Storm’s defence and reel in Melbourne’s 34-30 lead.
On the final tackle of the game, winger Mark Nawaqanitawase attempted to create a scoring opportunity, dancing past two defenders before finding Tedesco in space.
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The Roosters’ No.1 the flicked it back to Nawaqanitawase, who offloaded the ball to Angus Crichton — before referee Adam Gee blew his whistle for a forward pass.
Nawaqanitawase’s initial ball to Tedesco was deemed to have travelled forward, but even post-match the Tricolours captain was unsure which pass caught the ire of the officials.
“I don’t even know which one was it? Mark’s to me? I don’t know how that was forward,” he said.
“But anyway.”
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Both teams lost playmakers on Thursday night, with Jahrome Hughes suffering a dislocated shoulder, while Sandon Smith left the field after a head knock.
From there, Tedesco believed Melbourne superstar Harry Grant took control of the game, capitalising on his side’s poor defence.
“The physical battle, I was really happy with that. The Storm are a physical team,” he said.
“I thought we went after that and we’ve missed that the last two, three weeks so our middles really laid the platform well.
“But our goal line (defence). I mean Harry had so many opportunities and he made the most of them, like Robbo said our good ball wasn’t that great.
“A bit clunky with (Smith) going down, (Radley) not being there. We had a couple of opportunities like Robbo said, but defensively is the main thing.
“We let in 30 plus points, that’s not a standard we want to be at.”
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Robinson was questioned how his side adapted after losing Smith and echoed Tedesco’s opinion, pointing to Grant’s dominance.
“I thought we adapted well in yardage and midfield, but we didn’t adapt that well in good ball,” Robinson said.
“It’s tough when you lose a half there and your system relies on two halves, which is natural. Harry did a good job of taking over theirs when they lost the threat of a half.
“I think maybe the last 22 minutes, we had a good ball set, and we didn’t really have much impetus from that play on.
“Obviously Tupou’s drop where we moved it to the left, we had another couple of opportunities where we just couldn’t finish them off.
“But (you let in) 34 points, you need to expect to lose a game. Yeah, it’s frustrating not to finish off a game like that.”
