Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall has admitted his team “dodged a bullet” and “got lucky” when the Bulldogs had a try to Josh Curran disallowed on Saturday night. And Canterbury coach Cameron Ciraldo says he will air his grievances in an email to the NRL after feeling the Bulldogs were on the wrong end of several refereeing calls in their 22-16 loss.
The most contentious call of the game came when Curran charged down a Jarome Luai kick and raced away to score what appeared to be a fair try. But the Bunker chalked it off because Curran had made contact with Luai’s kicking leg.
Benji Marshall admitted his Wests Tigers got a bit lucky against the Bulldogs. Image: Fox League
Under the black and white letter of the law it was the correct decision, but it left the NRL world fuming. Even Marshall admitted in his press conference: “I like that we’re protecting kickers but I thought we dodged a bullet there to be honest.”
However replays also appeared to show that Curran never grounded the ball before his arm went over the touch in-goal line. Nevertheless, Ciraldo was left incredulous over that and a number of other calls.
Ciraldo thought Sunia Turuva was off-side when he clattered into Bulldogs fullback Jacob Kiraz without the ball before Jeral Skelton scored, and the Canterbury coach thought Stephen Crichton got the ball down for a try that was also disallowed. Replays appeared to show Turuva was behind the kicking foot of Luai and the collision with Kiraz was simply a contest for the ball.
Cameron Ciraldo set to lodge complaints with NRL
Crichton also had a teammate unmarked on his outside when he went himself and was held up by a brilliant try-saver from Jahream Bula. But Ciraldo was still unhappy and shifted the blame away from his team, which failed to covert 53 per cent of possession and a 7-0 set-restart count.
The Bulldogs thought they were dudded against the Tigers.
(Brendon Thorne via Getty Images)
“I’m sending another email this week and I’ll get something written back,” Ciraldo said. “The Josh Curran one, maybe the charge down is gone – his foot did touch him – but Josh charged the ball down first, chasing the kick and then Jarome’s foot hit him.
“If that’s the way it is, I’ll cop that. Jarome clearly didn’t think it was a penalty because he turned and chased.
“The more disappointing one was to go down the other end. Someone off-side takes out our fullback and then that’s a try. What’s worse? Someone touches your foot or someone takes out your fullback and they score a try.”
On social media, opinion was heavily divided on whether the Bulldogs were dudded or only had themselves to blame.