Anderson critical of officials as St Helens lose first game

Feb 11 2008

ST HELENS coach Daniel Anderson criticised the officials’ handling of the controversial final moments in Saints’ 24-22 defeat by Hull KR.

Matt Gidley crossed the line after the final hooter, but the try was ruled out for a Lee Gilmour pass after the tackle had been completed.

Anderson called it a “relatively weak” decision and claimed the touch judge who made the call should have come on to the field earlier.

He said: “They are all wired up and he could have told the ref earlier and stopped the whole rigmarole.”

Saints trailed 16-6 at half-time and Anderson, who described the Craven Park encounter as a “great advertisement for the game in February”, was encouraged by their response.

“Rovers were awesome in the first period,” he said. “I don’t think they made an error, they had plenty of possession and they punished us. I thought we fought back well.

“In the second half we knew we had to stop them scoring. But we had a horrible start, gave a penalty away and they scored and we had to fight back from 16 points down.

“But I was really happy with the way we played in the second half.”

Jake Webster’s late penalty won the game for Rovers after Saints fought back to square the match, but head coach Justin Morgan refused to get too excited about the shock win.

“I thought the first half we were very good but after the break we were a bit scratchy and made back-to-back errors,” he said.

Asked about the conclusion to the match, he said: “I thought the guy was penalised for passing off the floor.

“I was following the play but people near me said the touch judge held his ground and tried to indicate to the referee there was a penalty.”

The controversy came as Steve Tyrer missed a last- minute penalty and then play was allowed to go on after the final hooter with Gidley crossing the line, but the try was ruled out for a Gilmour pass after the tackle had been completed.

Rovers thought they had made an early breakthrough when Daniel Fitzhenry touched down in the corner after four minutes, but he had stepped into touch along the way.

But the home fans had only three more minutes to wait before a neat run-around move ended with Webster scorching in for a try converted by Scott Murrell.

And Fitzhenry made up for his earlier error when he plucked a tricky Murrell kick out of the air to touch down. Murrell landed the conversion from the touchline and St Helens were looking under pressure.

A lovely one-handed offload from Chev Walker sent in Clint Newton for an unconverted try just before the half hour.

Saints introduced Keiron Cunningham and he dived in to score to the left of the posts after Rovers had been penalised on the other side of the field.

Tyrer added the extra points but Rovers went into the break leading 16-6.

Rovers made their ideal start to the second half when Murrell galloped away before finding Shaun Briscoe in support, and the full-back went in to score despite the efforts of Leon Pryce and Tyrer. Murrell added the conversion.

Saints pulled a try back after 53 minutes when a missed tackle allowed Chris Flannery in, with Tyrer adding the conversion.

Paul Clough put further pressure on Rovers when he went in from a superb Paul Wellens offload, but Tyrer missed the kick.

However he pulled the sides level on 67 minutes after being sent in by Sean Long and James Graham and then adding the conversion.