Sydney Roosters boss Trent Robinson has launched a passionate tirade on leading Australian referee Ben Cummins, after the Roosters lost their first match of the season to Manly Sea Eagles.
The 8-0 loss was largely affected by an 11-2 penalty count in favour of the Sea Eagles, and Robinson labelled Cummins’ performance as unacceptable.
“It was unacceptable from Ben Cummins,” Robinson said. “There were so many instances in that game. Boyd Cordner gets called for third man in – pocket ref says OK. He has talked to Jamie Buhrer about being offside on the first tackle of the scrum on two occasions – well penalise it.
“Mitchell Pearce gets hit high off a kick – that’s a penalty. These are very simple rules.
“You can’t have a game 11-2 against us and have those infractions in the game.
“They need to give a good explanation as to why that was the case. They worked against each other. I’m happy with different rulings, but I can’t answer why we aren’t receiving penalties.”
