Updated June 11, 2012 07:20:09
An under-strength Brisbane side has inflicted a fourth straight defeat on the Sydney Roosters, winning 40-22 in a match marred by a series of gaffes by referees Matt Cecchin and Adam Devcich.
The performances of Cecchin, who this week was dumped from Wednesday's second State of Origin clash, Devcich and the video referee are sure to come under scrutiny with three tries being awarded in controversial circumstances.
Broncos coach Anthony Griffin told Grandstand he was perplexed by some of the refereeing decisions.
"It was a funny day like that, there were some strange calls," he said.
While admitting he was pleased some of the decision went his team's way, Griffin said it was more important to see his team dig in away from home.
"It was just important today that we showed some character," he said.
"When we went to Melbourne a couple of weeks ago with some players out, we rolled over."
Roosters coach Brian Smith also questioned the performance of the whistleblowers despite admitting his side had made a "hard slog even harder."
"Some of the amazing calls that were made today no doubt changed the course of the game at that point," he said.
"Refs make mistakes and they made some today that we felt were critical."
In a game played in driving rain at the Sydney Football Stadium, Griffin's side, which was without six players due to Queensland Origin commitments, ran in seven tries to the Roosters' four in front of a crowd of 9,738.
Ben Te'o opened the scoring with a try after 17 minutes before Jake Friend levelled the scores when he barged over out of dummy-half.
Both sides coped reasonably well despite the difficult conditions, but it was the Broncos who grabbed the third try of the game when Te'o spread the ball out to Gerard Beale who scored in the right corner on the half-hour mark.
However, the first half finished off with two controversial decisions by the officials which resulted in tries.
In the first, Tinirau Arona dived over for the Roosters' second four-pointer, but dropped the ball over the line, but Cecchin opted not to go to the video referee.
Then on the stroke of half-time the impressive Peter Wallace drove his way over the line but appeared to promote the ball in a double-movement as he scored.
But video referee Bernard Sutton pressed the green button giving the Broncos half-back the benefit of the doubt much to the fury of home supporters, before the half-time siren bizarrely sounded with a minute of the first half remaining.
That fury turned to apoplexy four minutes after the restart with a strange passage of play from the officials.
Roosters centre Joseph Leilua was wrestled to the ground by Broncos winger Lachlan Maranta.
One referee called "Roosters ball" - the other "Broncos ball" - but before the confused home side had time to react, Maranta ripped the ball from Leilua's grasp, without playing the ball, and then sprinted towards the line, and passed to Alex Glenn who scored.
Roosters skipper Braith Anasta led the protests, to no avail, but the injustice appeared to inspire his side's best passage of play, with Leilua powering over in the 50th minute.
But the Broncos defended their line well to limit the damage and Wallace showed great composure on the hour-mark when his perfect kick bounced up off the pads on the right post and into the grateful hands of Corey Norman who scored.
The Roosters clawed a try back seven minutes from time to make it a six-point gap when Tautau Moga went over in the right corner after Broncos prop Josh McGuire was put on report for a high shot on Daniel Mortimer.
But Frank-Paul Nuuausala dropped the ball from the restart and Maranta marked his first grade debut with a try and Jack Reed added a seventh try for the visitors in the final seconds with Wallace kicking his sixth goal.
Roosters full-back Anthony Minichiello blamed his team's performance rather than the referees for the loss.
"We let ourselves down," Minichiello said.
"Our defence was atrocious today.
"The conditions were bad but no excuses ... we defended pretty poor
Broncos: 40 (B Te'o, G Beale, P Wallace, A Glenn, C Norman, L Maranta, J Reed tries; P Wallace 6/7 cons)
Roosters: 22 (J Friend, T Arona, J Leilua, T Moga tries; B Anasta 3/4 cons)
ABC/AAP
Tags: sport,
rugby-league,
sydney-2000,
nsw,
brisbane-4000,
qld,
australia First posted June 10, 2012 16:57:16
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