IT was supposed to revolutionise rugby league decision making but Dragons fans were left wondering if the the NRL bunker is little more than a $2 million flop on Monday.
The decision from bunker official Luke Patten to allow William Hopoate’s 60th minute try after Tony Williams was ruled to have “accidently” thrown the ball to himself in the lead up proved the pivotal moment in the clash won 34-16 by the Bulldogs.
The decision – bizarre enough that Williams attributed it to divine intervention post-match – gave the Bulldogs a 26-16 lead with 20 minutes to play after the Dragons had fought their way back to 16-all after trailing at halftime.
It wasn’t the only bunker call to fall the Bulldogs way in their 34-16 victory with the first half swinging on a controversial try to Michael Lichaa 11 minutes before halftime that gave the Bulldogs a 6-4 lead.
Lichaa burrowed his way over from close range with Jared Maxwell sending it up to the bunker who confirmed the on-field call after several replays proved inconclusive. Moses Mbye finished off a 90-metre effort directly from the ensuing kickoff to take a 16-6 lead.
Tyson Frizell’s try three minutes before halftime kept the Dragons in the match but it proved a bridge too far in the second with the Bulldogs running in three second half tries, including Hopoate’s controversial four-pointer, to seal the victory.
A frustrated Paul McGregor said he will seek clarification from referees boss Tony Archer this week.
“I’ve had a chat [to Archer] the last two weeks, went through the proper channels, through the emails and we’ll do it again,” McGregor said.
“We’ve had one penalty in second halves in the last three weeks so in three games of footy we’ve had one penalty in 120 minutes. The other teams must be very disciplined.
“If you look at Lichaa’s try, no one’s seen the ball go down yet. On the Williams one...I don’t know. Apparently it was passed into his own hand and went forward but that’s acceptable. So you pass it into your own hand and the ball goes forward and you regather that’s acceptable...work that one out for me please.
“That wasn’t why we lost the game, we lost the game because defensively we weren’t good enough but some of the decisions...they’re hard to swallow.
“The opposition ran 2000 metres and that’s unacceptable so lets put that on the table...but certainly the game’s hard enough to not get any decisions go your way and today nothing went our way.
“[A win] would’ve put us in good position fifth on the table. Now we’re 11th on for and against. When you look at the scale of things there it was pretty important.”
