Roosters coach blasts referee

Rugby League Conference — East St Ives Roosters 20 Hainault Bulldogs 26 ROOSTERS coach Ian Hill blasted match referee George Greer after his side s defeat at home to Essex side Hainault. Hill said that Greer completely lost control in a match which saw

Rugby League Conference - East

St Ives Roosters 20 Hainault Bulldogs 26

ROOSTERS coach Ian Hill blasted match referee George Greer after his side's defeat at home to Essex side Hainault.

Hill said that Greer 'completely lost control' in a match which saw four players sin-binned and a controversial late try go against Roosters.

St Ives struggled to cope with the physical Hainault side from the off and were fortunate not to concede points when the visitors crossed the line but were pulled back for an infringement.

The deadlock was broken with a try by Hainault prop Paul Hyder after the Bulldogs fullback broke the Roosters line with an angled run.

Both sides were becoming increasingly frustrated with the referee and an incident resulted in a player from each side visiting the sin bin.

Five minutes later a similar incident occurred which led Roosters Lee Kupyn and another Bulldogs player being yellow carded.

Hainault then extended their lead when the Roosters failed to deal with a drive down the middle taking the score to 12-0.

Rooster's in-form player Charles Paxton then scored a fine individual try with a block busting run which was converted by Jimmy Allen, followed by another good try from opposite Centre Paul Ashbridge, which Allen converted.

Hainault were awarded a penalty on the half way line just before the break which left them in good field position to score a well-worked try and take a half-time lead of 18-12.

The second half became littered with penalties but despite this the Roosters continued to battle back into the game. Veteran Dan McCormack provided the impetus with a fine individual try from the 20 metre line with Allen again adding the extras.

Hainault held firm until they finally conceded a penalty under the posts.

With 20 minutes to go both sides battled for the decisive score. More controversial decisions by Greer led both sides to lose their composure. With two minutes remaining it looked like the game was heading for a draw until the visitors got the benefit of another contentious refereeing decision to hand them a try.

Of the official, an angry Hill said: "He has refereed three out of four league games this season and seems to be going backwards.

"I am very reluctant to criticise referees but he completely lost control of the game."

nRoosters travel to Greenwich Admirals on Saturday.