Wakefield Trinity coach Chris Chester will seek clarification from the RFL’s head of match officials Steve Ganson over what he described as “crowd calls” during Thursday’s Super League defeat by Catalans Dragons in Perpignan.
Trinity lost 40-20, but were in contention until the 72nd minute, before two tries by Fouad Yaha sealed the win for the league leaders.
Chester had no complaints about the final score, but he took issue with some of the decisions made by referee Marcus Griffiths at the Stade Gilbert Brutus.
He told League Express: “Looking at the stats with the six-against and the penalties (5-2 and 8-4 in favour of Catalans), without having a go at the referee, there is a really loud, vocal crowd here and I thought there were a few ‘crowd calls’ tonight and maybe the referee needed to be a little bit stronger with some of those decisions.
“I will go through the right channels and chat with the right people.”
There were no Wakefield supporters among the 6,267 crowd and Chester believes that created an intimidating atmosphere for the visiting players and officials.
“I won’t fault the players, that was a tough, hot night tonight,” he said.
“We’re competing hard and I don’t think we deserved that final scoreline.
“Big Sam Kasiano has caused us a hell of a lot of problems over the last two years and he did the same again.
“We couldn’t get our hands on Maloney, Tomkins or Drinkwater, so it’s really disappointing and frustrating that we ran a team close again, put in all of that effort and the results aren’t coming.
“Having said that, a lot of our players are performing well above their salary-cap value. There’s a real difference in the quality of some of their individuals and we couldn’t compete.
“I think there were lots of positives, but effort will only take us so far.”
With tonight’s (Monday’s) scheduled home clash with Salford postponed due to the Red Devils’ Covid issues, Wakefield next play away to Huddersfield on Sunday.
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