New Zealand Warriors head coach Andrew Webster has admitted to being left frustrated by the officiating calls at the back end of his side's loss to the Newcastle Knights in an NRL semi-final on Sunday afternoon.
While Knights' coach Justin Holbrook didn't see the same issues, Webster took exception with a number of calls.
Of particular note, three calls appeared to go against the Warriors in the final minutes of the game.
The first of those, in the 71st minute, saw Bradman Best drop a Kalyn Ponga pass, only for the Knights to challenge, believing Ali Leiataua got a hand on the ball.
Despite the evidence on hand seemingly being inconclusive at best, bunker official Chris Butler found reason to overrule the call after several looks, claiming to see a change in rotation of the football - evidence available to those watching at home seemed to show nothing of the sort.
Just minutes later, the Warriors were then penalised for a strip where it had appeared Greg Marzhew had dropped the ball.
The captain's challenge was again called into action, but the bunker this time couldn't find evidence to overrule it, with Te Maire Martin ruled to have changed the position of his fingers into a stripping motion, despite being bumped out of the tackle at high speed.
Consistency throughout the year would suggest it was likely a loose carry, but Butler didn't see it that way working the video screens.
The final nail in the Warriors' coffin came just two minutes out from full time when Tyson Frizell appeared to run an escort on a high kick, but Klein ruled no penalty.
“It's frustrating. I thought they were trying to find ways to take it off us,” Webster said.
“The rotation of the ball [on Leiataua's touch], like he said, ‘I can't find any evidence', and he says, ‘oh hang on, I'll have one more look '. And then has a look, ‘Oh yeah, there it is '. He looked at it 20 times.
“He's [Te Maire Martin] only trying to tackle him; he's not trying to strip the ball. And because he went in a backwards motion, I've never heard that one, but I'm sure it's part of the rules.
“That [the escort penalty] would have drawn the game and gone to extra time. But at the end of the day, you make your own luck in this game, and we had enough opportunities to win that game."
Holbrook, on the other hand, had differing views of the calls that divided rugby league opinion on Sunday evening and saw frustrated Warriors fans throw bottles and cans at the officials from the grandstand as they walked from the field.
“I thought they were all right,” he said post-match.
“I thought he stripped it with his hand and ripped it like that,” he said.
Holbrook also revealed he "didn't even notice" the escort from Frizell in the final minutes of the game, choosing to avoid talking about the officials as much as possible.
His side now has seven days to get ready for a sudden-death preliminary final against the Penrith Panthers next weekend.
