The Sydney Roosters have benefited from a contentious decision to award Robert Toia a try despite replays showing he dropped the ball over the tryline.
The Gold Coast Titans opened the scoring at Gosford on Friday night when Chris Randall scored in the 16th minute of a fairly even contest in the first half.
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Toia got on the end of a pass from James Tedesco and appeared to cross for a try, with the referee awarding a four-pointer.
But replays showed the Roosters centre appeared to lose control of the ball with the Steeden coming loose from his grasp as he attempted to ground the ball.
“Gee it was a little bit of a worry, the put-down,” Greg Alexander said on Kayo Sports.
“Oh, it’s out. It’s come out of his hand.
“There’s no doubt it comes free from the hand. If it’s come free from his hand, he hasn’t regripped the ball.
“I can’t give that a try. I can’t have it. I think he’s lost the ball, end of story.”
Watch the replay of the Robert Toia try in the video above
But after a lengthy replay, the Bunker ruled it was a try.
“Did it stay on his forearm? It’s debatable,” Alexander said.
“You could swing it either way with the way we interpret if you score a try these days, but I’m going to say no.”
“I thought it was a no try. Hand came away from the ball,” Michael Ennis said.
“Vision showed the forearm stayed there but it looked like he dropped the footy. I thought he was very lucky to get away with that one.”
The decision it made it 6-4 after Sam Walker missed the conversion, before James Tedesco scored to give the Roosters 10-6 lead heading into halftime.
Tedesco scored in the corner after winger Daniel Tupou jumped and contested a high ball, and the Bunker ruled he had not obstructed the play under the disrupter rule.
“I was so pleased they got this right,” Ennis said about Tedesco’s try.
“Daniel Tupou cannot disappear. He did a great job to get up there and tap the ball back and he simply could not get out of the way.”
After somehow escaping suspension for several infringements last week, Victor Radley was again put on reporter for a dangerous high tackle early in the game.
The Roosters ran away with it in the second half to claim a comfortable 28-12 win to stay in third on the NRL ladder.
Toia and Tedesco scored doubles, while Daniel Tupou and Hugo Savala also scored tries.
Despite being the wrong side of 30, the Roosters skipper is the form fullback of the competition and is putting serious pressure on incumbent Blues custodian Dylan Edwards ahead of this month’s Origin opener.
Tedesco set Gosford’s Polytec Stadium alight against the Titans, running for 302 metres, scoring two tries and setting up another for Robert Toia. However, two of these scores were tinged with controversy.Tupou scored his 191st career try (surpassing Billy Slater for 3rd-highest in premiership history) when he beat Titans rookie Jensen Taumoepeau to another Walker bomb at the hour mark, while Hugo Savala sealed the Roosters’ sixth straight win by chasing down Reece Robson’s grubber in the 66th minute.
– With NewsWire
