{"id":750771,"date":"2026-06-21T12:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T12:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/750771\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T12:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T12:06:14","slug":"nrl-news-2026-cowboys-coach-todd-payten-frustrated-after-bunker-decision-vs-warriors-taine-tuaupiki-knock-on-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/750771\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: Cowboys coach Todd Payten \u2018frustrated\u2019 after Bunker decision vs Warriors, Taine Tuaupiki knock on, video"},"content":{"rendered":"

Todd Payten<\/a> has vented his frustration with NRL officials after a controversial try was awarded during North Queensland<\/a>\u2019s loss to the Warriors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a tight, see-sawing contest at the first game at Christchurch\u2019s One NZ Stadium, the hosts kicked clear and won 38-20 on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Warriors players celebrate Adam Pompey’s try.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Warriors prop Jackson Ford left the field in the first half with a pectoral injury<\/a>, while Cowboys veteran Jason Taumalolo<\/a> was sin binned for a dangerous throw.<\/p>\n

But it was one costly moment when the game was still in the balance that had plenty of people scratching their heads.<\/p>\n

With the second-placed Warriors ahead by 10 on the scoreboard, Adam Pompey cleaned up a loose ball in the in-goal to score a match-sealing try.<\/p>\n

Replays showed that fullback Taine Tuaupiki had touched the ball on the way through, but the Bunker cleared the lead-up and the Warriors try stood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s off Tuaupiki,\u201d a confused Steve Roach said on Fox League commentary.<\/p>\n

Cowboys players attempted to reason with Grant Atkins but there was little the on-field referee could do about it after the video review. <\/p>\n

Speaking in his post-game press conference, Payten \u2013 who on Saturday signed a fresh two-year contract extension<\/a> \u2013 was asked about the incident.<\/p>\n

He revealed the club would be asking for a \u201cplease explain\u201d from the NRL but conceded an admission the call was wrong wouldn\u2019t do much.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose moments, that\u2019s the difference,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty certain Tuaupiki touched that ball. I don\u2019t know if it was checked, but \u2026 I was pretty certain it was touched. The margin was 10 points there at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll tell you what will really be frustrating, if we get an apology email through the week or a phone call. When the Bunker has so many angles, I understand there\u2019s going to be human error but they\u2019re big moments. <\/p>\n

\u201cGames can turn on those types of decisions and they\u2019re getting too many wrong in the game. We will make a phone call. We\u2019ll send an email and see how we go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Taine Tuaupiki knocks the ball on against the Cowboys.\u00a0Fox League<\/p>\n

The loss sees the Cowboys lose grip of a top-eight spot, while the Warriors remain in second spot, four points behind the Panthers.<\/p>\n

Payten\u2019s men will host Penrith next weekend, while the Warriors travel across the ditch to face the red-hot Dolphins at Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Todd Payten has vented his frustration with NRL officials after a controversial try was awarded during North Queensland\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-750771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}