Rivalry turns ugly
After going down 14-8 to the Roosters last night, Sharks coach Stuart Raper wasted no time in taking a shot at counterpart Ricky Stuart. And Stuart wasted no time returning fire.
Raper said the Roosters wanted an "ugly" game, and criticised referee Shayne Hayne for letting them have it.
"I thought Shayne missed a lot of things around the ruck area that made it an ugly game, and that suited the Roosters," Raper said. "They wanted to play an ugly game . . . "
Stuart said: "He saw a completely different game of football to me.
"Our execution and our ruck attack in the first half was outstanding. If that's an untidy game of football, he's a hard taskmaster in regards to a tidy game . . . I don't understand where he's coming from there, he's obviously disappointed with the loss.
"You talk about an untidy game of football, he had his team kicking on tackle three and tackle four, what kind of tactic is that? When you talk about untidy, their whole attack was abysmal in regards to kicking on tackle three, tackle four, not completing the set of six