Eels Robbed of Easter Monday Miracle

Parramatta's profligacy in front of goal shouldn't overshadow the hamfisted refereeing of Peter Gough

By the end of 83 minutes of game time, the Parramatta Eels represented a Frankenstein’s monster of an NRL side.

Their right winger was their starting fullback. Their fullback a bench utility who debuted earlier in the match on the right wing. Their five-eighth was their hooker and then their lock. Their right centre was at times a bench forward, at other times their halfback. Their right edge back-rower was their starting prop, who also played time on the left edge.

And still. Through all of that. It was the referee who had far more of an impact on this game than any referee should.

Peter Gough. The man with the worst moustache in rugby league. He seemed to relish making himself the centre of attention.

At the conclusion of the match, he had awarded 11 penalties and 13 set restarts, for 24 infringements. Or one roughly every 3 minutes 25 seconds.

Much of the focus will be on his decision to penalise Dylan Walker on the penultimate play of the game for being offside in trying to pressure Jock Madden’s field goal.

However more should be made of how he selectively enforces the rules. Or what he just straight up misses.

With 6 minutes to go in the first half, he rules Eels centre Brian Kelly as losing the ball in a tackle 20 metres from Parramatta’s line. Kelly had four Tigers defenders on him, with Kai Pearce-Paul clearly raking at the ball. It was a stone dead strip.

To Gough though, it was a fairly lost ball. Play on. No challenge available as play was live.

On 4th tackle of the ensuing set, the Tigers go to their left hand side. Left edge backrower Samuela Fainu runs straight into Jack Williams, knocking him over. Madden, as the ball runner, attacks the hole created, only just being dragged down by Charlie Guymer.

It is a textbook obstruction. A decoy runner has run straight into a defender, knocking him over, with the ball runner then attacking that gap. If Madden scored it would have been rejected by The Bunker. Instead Gough allows play to continue.

That’s despite the fact the Eels scrambling defence has compressed their middles, providing more space on the outside for the Tigers to attack. The Tigers scored on the ensuing play.

Again, it was Peter Gough deciding he didn’t need to apply the rules then and there.

Mind you, this was only minutes after Sean Russell suffered a concussion but was penalised for making contact with the head. At this rate, we may as well penalise any head clash.

Later in the match in the 66th minute, we saw Kelma Tuilagi hit high, Gough again decided the contact didn’t warrant a penalty, yet the Eels back rower was forced from the field for a head injury assessment.

So hit in the head, but according to the referee not worthy of a penalty, however according to the independent doctor he needs to be assessed for a concussion. Are you still following me?

Then we also have the Jack Williams “knock-on”, which Moses clarified he chose not to challenge.

Williams scoops up a loose ball and races up field. He’s surrounded by defenders and taken to ground. His ball carrying arm hits the ground with defenders in contact with him.

Section 11 of the law book has a number of ways this can be taken as tackle.

11.2: A player in possession is tackled:

a) When they are held by one or more opposing players and the ball or the hand or arm holding the ball comes into contact with the ground.

or

d) When they are lying on the ground and an opponent places a hand on them.

You could say both occurred to Williams. He was taken to ground by a defender, the ball carrying arm contacted the ground and defenders maintained a hand on him.

Peter Gough’s reasoning that Williams wasn’t held was that he didn’t say “held”. But according to the law book, that is not necessary to constitute a tackle.

Section 11.6:

If any question arises as to a tackle, the Referee should give a verbal instruction to “play on” or shout “held” as the case may be.

Gough did neither. He did not say “play on” or “held”.

And as we have established, Williams was, to the letter of the law, tackled.

And as both Ryles and Moses said in the press conference, had Williams then grounded the ball in the in-goal it would have been called back for a double movement.

So we had Apisai Koroisau get away with a sin bin offence by breaking up the play in a try scoring situation by tackling an already tackled player who was trying to play the ball.

Now. This incident was completely missed during the run of play by everyone, but stuck in my mind after the penalty on Dylan Walker in golden point.

In the 22nd minute of the match, the Eels 30 metres from the Tigers line. It’s last tackle, the pass goes to Moses and Terrell May charges from marker. He’s called offside by Gough. He does not stop, he does not slow down, he continues pressuring the Moses kick.

There is a giant gap behind May with not a single Tigers defender covering about 15 metres of space. Yet because Moses is unable to step off his right foot due to May’s presence, he goes ahead with the bomb into the left corner.

Let’s recap. A defender is called out directly by the referee for being offside. He continues through with his kick pressure. In one case, the referee waves play on. The other, he penalises the defender in Golden point and effectively decides the game.

Consistency is spoken about a lot in rugby league. And yes, there are differences in interpretation and the different ways referees apply the rules and officiate games. They’re human, it’s just part of the game.

But in that last example, it is the same infringement, the same referee. Yet we have 2 very different results.

If one is a penalty, the other is a penalty. The referees can’t have it both ways, and you can’t apply the rules differently just because one player is taking a shot at field goal (even though we all know they do).

And to seemingly rub salt into the wound, Peter Gough has been dropped for the following round.

Normal service will resume on this newsletter once I move through all stages of grief and can less subjectively review the game.