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Chester rips into referee

03 Sep 19, 12:00AM 0 Comments

Written by John Davidson

Photo by Wigan Warriors

Wakefield Trinity coach Chris Chester has taken aim at referee Scott Mikalauskas, describing a decision as “disgraceful” during his side’s 24-16 loss to Wigan.

Liam Marshall scored a vital try in the 57th minute, tapping the ball on his own 20-metre line and racing away to score.

But Chester was furious after he believed Marshall was allowed to tap the ball incorrectly away from the centre of the line.

That try made it 16-12 to the Warriors and they went on to win the crucial game at Belle Vue.

Video replays suggest Chester was correct that Marshall tapped the ball far from the centre line.

“I can cop a player being a metre away from the centre spot, but when it’s six, seven metres away from the centre spot,” the Wakefield coach said after the gane.

“I don’t know how many officials were there, but there’s a bloke behind the post and I don’t know what his job is. You’ve got a referee who’s on the spot and just let Liam Marshall tap it wherever he wanted.

“I don’t know whether the rules have changed. But it’s just a disgraceful call, a disgraceful call. It’s a call you shouldn’t get wrong.

“There’s a line there to tell you where you should tap the ball.”

Wigan coach Adrian Lam claimed he didn’t see the non-decision on Marshall’s third try.

Trinity remain just two points above twelfth-placed London with two rounds left, and Chester believes his team may still need one more victory to avoid relegation.

They face Warrington and the Broncos in their final two matches.

“I think we’ll need another one,” Chester said.

“It’s all in our hands. There’s three teams there on 20 points and whatever London are on. I think we need another win, and hopefully we can get it over the next two weeks.

“I think the performances over the past four, five weeks, the Hull KR game and this game today have shown we can match it with the best sides in the competition.

“With a little bit of luck we could have maybe got a result. But credit to Wigan, they were very good.”

Wakefield lost Bill Tupou to a pectoral injury and Chris Annakin to a groin issue during the match.

Chester believes both injuries will rule the pair out from playing again this season.

“It looks like it,” he said.

“We’ve got some cover there in Joe Arundel and George King, and Jordie Crowther. So we’ve pretty much got that covered.”

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