Roosters coach Trent Robinson blasts ‘incompetent’ referees and Bunker

Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson has let the referees have both barrels over an unpunished play that saw his five-eighth hospitalised.

Trent Robinson has shredded the referees and the Bunker.

Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson has blasted referee Matt Cecchin and the Bunker but has refused to blame it for the 31-18 loss to the Parramatta Eels.

In what was the final play before halftime, there were two incidents in one play with Roosters superstar James Tedesco hit with a high shot, before young half Drew Hutchison copped knees in the back from Eels half Dylan Brown.

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Social media was fuming over the incident with Hutchison reportedly given oxygen before he was wheeled into an ambulance with suspected broken ribs and a punctured lung.

It added to a wild injury list with concussions to both Victor Radley and Matt Ikuvalu in the first half, while halfback Sam Walker went off with an ankle complaint late in the game.

Tedesco appeared uninjured by his hit.

But it was the Hutchison injury that was the most troubling.

As Marata Niukore’s hit on Tedesco came first in the play, the referee and the Bunker put it on report, but didn’t look at a potential sin bin.

Brown’s act was ignored on the field, although he was placed on report at halftime.

The refs should have just come together at the start of the second half, admit they stuffed that up, sin bin Dylan Brown and send off Niukore. That was ridiculous. #nrl#NRLEelsRoosters

— Mark Gottlieb (@MarkGottlieb) May 7, 2021

How can a player use.his knees like @TheParraEels Dylan Brown did then and not be sin binned and put on report ??? @9_Moley@AdamHawse what a farce.. he never attempted a tackle .. went in knees first #NRL#NRLEelsRoosters

— Bernie Coen (@berniecoen) May 7, 2021

While the Roosters are regularly criticised for their “salary sombrero”, the performance against the Eels showed their heart.

Drew Hutchison was in incredible pain.

While it would be hard to blame Robinson for taking his frustrations out on the Eels, the Roosters mentor took aim at the officials after the officials appeared to miss Brown’s knees in the ribs of Hutchison.

“There was no action on the field,” Robinson said in his press conference. “There was no action whatsoever on the field. I’m not saying how they’re going to judge that but we couldn’t even replace Drew because it wasn’t even on report at that stage.

“They looked at it 10 times and they couldn’t find anything. They had all of halftime and we ran out on the field and they say it’s on report now. Why didn’t they tell us 10 minutes earlier so I could have changed it in the dressing rooms but they told us as we were running out on the field.

“So I had to make a split second change as we ran out on the field. It’s ridiculous. It’s incompetent. To not see that, a guy goes to hospital and 20 minutes later you put him on report, it’s ridiculous.”

Robinson said he missed the high shoulder on Tedesco and said he couldn’t comment on it but added: “Tonight wasn’t good enough”.

Asked if he was going to chase it up through the NRL ladder, Robinson said “No”.

“They don’t need me to ask the question, they should be looking at it themselves,” he added. “How does it take 20 minutes to put someone on report or get that information to me when they had a lot of looks at it. They should have put it on report on field really simply. Honestly, how many looks did they need to do that. And then to tell me as we ran back out on the field, did they not know? Did they not know five minutes before that, 10 minutes before that so we could make some movement around that? They don’t need me to ask the question, they need to ask the question themselves. It was just poor.”

Drew Hutchison being taken to hospital.

Robinson didn’t buy into a question about sin bins changing the complexion of the game, saying “We had opportunities to win the game if we played better and I don’t think we played well enough to win the game”.

“That incident was unacceptable from the Bunker and the referees but we weren’t good enough to shift momentum,” Robinson said.

The performance was remarkable in the second half as the wounded Roosters took the Eels into the final 10 minutes to skip away.

A 73rd minute field goal before a try to Dylan Brown in the 75th minutes finished off the game — and rubbed salt into the wounds.

Even more remarkable, the Eels had 64 per cent of possession, and the Roosters had to make 156 more tackles in the game.

Roosters might have to bring back Aubo... wow. What a night. Courageous in the extreme @sydneyroosters. @TheParraEels 8 & 1 to start the season but might miss a couple to suspension. Drama after drama - loved it. @NRLonNine#NRLEelsRoosters#NRL

— Mathew Thompson (@MathewJThompson) May 7, 2021

All guts and heart from the @sydneyroosters tonight . Injuries. No possession. No ball. And still hung in there. Heads high. Heads high ... #NRLEelsRoosters#nrl

— Robert Grasso (@RobertGrasso) May 7, 2021

Originally published as Roosters coach Trent Robinson blasts ‘incompetent’ referees and Bunker