Cheers Hut
Off the top of my head the penalties that got called on NSW was the strip call in the first set which was an obvious penalty. The second was Maloney offside at marker after making a tackle and he was clearly called to stay out of making the next tackle (he never made it to marker in time) and he ignored it (probably wouldn't have heard the ref over the crowd). Jennings charge down on JT kicking was always going to be a penalty under the current rules (which i dont agree with but its the same for both teams) all Jennings had to do was wrap his arms around Thurston and he would have got away with it. And the 4th was Fafita laying all over Hodges after he made 15m and got tackled onto his guts and was always entitled to a quick play the ball and never got it.
There was not one penalty in that blitzkrieg period that was unjust or not worthy of being blown a penalty.
Throw in the fact that QLDs kicking game was spot on in the first 20 as well which forced NSW to be stuck on their own tryline, the lost ball by hoffman was deep in NSW territory, along with the NSW playing at the ball was also deep in NSW half and QLD got a couple of repeat sets via drop outs , it was just one of those periods where absolutely nothing goes right.
Some of the comments in here and the match thread just left me shaking my head. Some people complaining that the penalty count was so lopsided in the first half, well its a bit hard for QLD to give away a penalty when they had 90% of the ball.
Again like I said on the night, blame the clown on NSW right wing, the pathetic kicking game by everyone who had a go (remember Dugan getting the ball after a kick by maloney got batted back on the last and it he booted straight over the dead ball line) and the penalties they gave away.
NSW did well to hang in there in all honesty. They just gotta play smarter at times.
