On the Refs ...
- Penalties overall were 9-4 Roosters (3-3 in the first half and 6-1 in the second half). I agree that many were dumb penalties on the Sharks' behalf, but I thought that a few were poor calls by the refs. Specifically the Maloney one in the first minute (obvious milking from Pearce) and the "two man strip", and I reckon at least 1-2 of the ones in the second half were 50/50 but went with the Roosters because they had the run of play. My main issue was the lack of Sharks penalties in the second half. There were an equal amount of slow play the balls/holding down on that side of play that were ignored.
- I can't believe there was no penalty for Nu being tackled without the ball. That was ridiculous.
- IMO the bunker call were all correct. The Tupou one reminded me of the sort of try that was being awarded in 2013, but they have been pretty consistent with the interpretation those ones in the last few seasons.
- I also agree with the obstruction penalty against the Sharks in the second half
- Mitchell's pass for Tupou's try was about 3m forward.
This game shows what happens when you piggy-back teams out of their own end all night. Despite nearly equal position over the game the team was sapped. The strength of the Cronulla game is putting pressure on other teams inside their 30m. There was little or no opportunity to do this in the second half because of penalties (deserved or otherwise).
