Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall was left proud of his players but fuming with the officials following a 26-24 loss to the Warriors on Sunday night.
The Tigers had two tries disallowed in the final 20 minutes but both were clear-cut decisions for the Bunker.
However, with the scores level in the 73rd minute Warriors fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad was tackled on the fifth by Alex Seyfarth 40 metres out from goal and he stayed down clutching at his jaw.
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Nicoll-Klokstad stayed down long enough for the Bunker official Matt Noyen to check the replay and he awarded a letter-of-the-law penalty for a high shot.
Warriors halfback Luke Metcalf then stepped up and nailed the long-range shot in what proved the match-winning kick.
It wasn’t clear which decisions Marshall was frustrated with as the second-year coach refused to elaborate on “we got no favours today” out of fear of being fined.
“You were watching the game, you write whatever you think,” Marshall responded when pressed if he thought his side had been hard done by the referees.
“I don’t want to do what Ricky (Stuart) did and risk getting fined and talk about the ref because we’re not allowed to so I won’t bring it up.
“I don’t think we are (allowed to talk about decisions). There’s nothing more to say, if you were there watching you know.”
Marshall was forced into a late reshuffle of his side after centre Adam Doueihi went down with a groin injury in the warm-up.
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The coach said he was proud of his men for adjusting under difficult circumstances.
“Disappointed for the boys with the result not going our way but at the same time, the amount of adversity that we had today that we had to get through,” he said.
“Losing (Adam) Doueihi before the game, Samuela Fainu went off pretty early, we had Jack Bird playing centre, Sione (Fainu) playing backrow, brought Latu (Fainu) off the bench to play middle, Terrell (May) played 80, Fonua (Pole) played close to 70.
“Just some massive efforts from a few of our lads. So as a coach and club I’m really proud of the effort, even though we got no favours today, that was pretty obvious.
“All and all we’ve got to take the good things and move on to next week.”
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