{"id":898901,"date":"2026-09-20T12:40:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T12:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898901\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T12:40:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T12:40:27","slug":"nrl-2026-justin-holbrook-press-conference-agrees-with-referees-contentious-decisions-newcastle-knights-vs-new-zealand-warriors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898901\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Justin Holbrook press conference, agrees with referee\u2019s contentious decisions, Newcastle Knights vs New Zealand Warriors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The semi-final match between the Newcastle Knights and New Zealand Warriors may have ended in controversy<\/a> but Justin Holbrook was adamant he had no issue with the officiating.<\/p>\n

The Knights were on the right side of three contentious decisions made by referee Ashley Klein and the Bunker in the dying stages but Holbrook remained unfazed when asked about the decisions.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI thought they were all right,\u201d he said post-match.<\/p>\n

When a New Zealand-based reported tried to delve deeper into the contentious calls which saw Tyson Frizell appearing to block multiple Warriors chasers, Holbrook revealed he didn\u2019t even notice the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t notice that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, another reporter questioned Holbrook on a separate contentious decision.<\/p>\n

This incident saw the referee award a penalty against Ali Leiataua for strip even though replays looked inconclusive. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he stripped it with his hand and ripped it like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

PLAYER RATINGS<\/p>\n

KNIGHTS: Unsung hero\u2019s clutch play; X-factor to worry Panthers<\/a><\/p>\n

WARRIORS: Absolute shambles exposes big Warriors issue<\/a><\/p>\n

Webster & JFH LIVID at bunker decisions | 12:37<\/p>\n

Rather than dwell on the officiating decisions, Holbrook instead praised his side for the gutsy performance which has set up a preliminary final with the Panthers next weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not here to comment on the result. Anyway we were fantastic today,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Warriors had a great year, they were enormous. It was not much in the game but I want to thank our players. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe played with a hundred-odd fans here in front of 50,000 and we knew how many fans were watching back home so I\u2019m really happy with the win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continuing their fairy tale finals run, the two-point victory came just three weeks after they were beaten by the Warriors in Auckland, 46-32.<\/p>\n

WARRIORS PRESSER: Coach\u2019s scathing take on calls that ended Warriors\u2019 season<\/a><\/p>\n

Ponga emotional post-game after Wahs win | 02:13<\/p>\n

However, the head coach stated the heavy defeat gave the Knights confidence heading into clash today as they knew what to expect from their opponents who have now exited the finals in straight sets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did have a lot of confidence from that game going into our Souths game but we knew this one would be different,\u201d Holbrook continued. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew we weren\u2019t going to have some joy like we did in that game. This was a lot more at stake. The Warriors had set themselves up all year. They weren\u2019t at full strength that day (and) we were down to 12. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey would have relaxed a bit and we fought hard and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve done every week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t going to be the same way and we knew the game went today how we predicted it was going to go. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew it was going to be hard but again our playing group handled change of positions, people moving around, a young forward pack against arguably the best pack in the comp here tonight. That was a great win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The semi-final match between the Newcastle Knights and New Zealand Warriors may have ended in controversy but Justin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-898901","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\/898901","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=898901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}