St George Illawarra Dragons coach Dean Young was left "confused" over some of the refereeing deicisons made in his side's loss to the Canberra Raiders.
The Red V made the road trip down to the nation's capital to build on their heartbreaking loss to Newcastle last week, but have come up just short.
Young was critical of a decision at the start of the Raiders clash, where a change of possession was ruled as a 20-metre restart despite camera angles suggesting Xavier Savage pushed Valentine Holmes in the back.
“I'm confused by that one because when they're saying two people are competing for the ball, that's normally when you've got two people side by side competing for the ball, but Savage was behind Val,” Young said in his post-match press conference.
“He shoves him in the back, but Savage was behind Val and shoves him in the back. The momentum stopped Val from putting the ball down and (there was) no penalty. (Instead it was a) 20-metre restart."
The contentious decisions going against the Dragons followed them through the 80-minutes in their 24-16 defeat.
“Then there was a one-on-one strip decision at the end where the boys challenged it and the bunker's looking at it in slow-mo,” Young added.
“But you need to hear what the ref is saying and when he's saying held to make that decision, so I'm confused about that one as well."
The biggest call of the match occurred when a lofted pass from Kyle Flanagan touched Simi Sasagi in flight, where it looked to be propelled forward into the arms of Savage, who ran the distance and scored a pivotal try in the Raiders win.
The Bunker confirmed the try, despite the flight path changing, with co-skipper Damien Cook bewildered by the ruling.
“To be honest, it was pretty disappointing but if I can sum it up, even the Canberra Raiders team were pretty shocked at the decision,” Cook said.
“They didn't even have a kicker down there and it's not just us that's affecting the game, it's the fans as well. I feel like they deserve better.
“I know I'm not a professional, but there's a couple of calls out there (that were interesting).
“There's another one where I thought Val was pushed in the back enough to warrant a penalty at least.”
