Rookie St George Illawarra centre Euan Aitken rejected suggestions from Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson that he had taken a dive to get a crucial penalty as the Dragons overcame a 30-minute stoppage due to hail and lighting and a controversial decision not to check a try to secure their sixth consecutive win.
With the Dragons hanging on to a 10-6 lead midway through the second half of what was almost a three-hour match from the pre-game ceremony to full-time, Aitken earned the ire of Roosters players — headed by Jared Waerea-Hargreaves — for staying down after a Dylan Napa shoulder charge.
The ensuing penalty enabled Dragons five-eighth Gareth Widdop to extend his team's lead but Robinson maintained the contact had been with Aitken's shoulder. "Jared got talked to after that for going over and saying 'stand up'," Robinson said. "He is a young kid in our game, who is playing great footy and he lies down on that play. Do you guys like watching that in our game, are you happy, is that our sport."
Aitken insisted he had been struck in the face by Napa's shoulder and was entitled to a penalty.
"You could see by the film that he did hit my face and rattled me a little bit, not enough to concuss me or anything like that but I thought it was legit for a penalty," Aitken said. "It was his shoulder that hit me in the face and any contact like that is a penalty, it is in the rule book."
Another penalty four minutes later after a high shot by Roosters lock Sio Siua Taukeiaho after hooker Mitch Rein had passed the ball, enabled Widdop to kick another goal and St George Illawarra hung on to win 14-12 but Dragons coach Paul McGregor believed the scores should never have been so close after Dylan Farrell was denied a 45th minute try.
Despite St George Illawarra players calling for referee Gerard Sutton to check whether Farrell had scored after beating Michael Jennings to a grubber by man-of-the-match Benji Marshall, he signalled a 20-metre restart and play continued.
"We went to a decision earlier on a drop out when Joel Thompson was offside and then we didn't go to the referee's box for a try, so that is a bit disappointing, but that's the way it is," McGregor said.
Dragons captain Ben Creagh spoke to Sutton after replays on the big screen showed Farrell had scored.
"It was a shame he didn't go to the video because we got down the other end of the field and [replays showed] it was a try," Creagh said.
"There are a lot of 50-50 calls in games but in that case, and especially with how slow the ground was and how wet it was, the ball did hold up there so it would have been good to have a look."
Before the game was stopped in the 28th minute, te Dragons were on top after tries to winger Peter Mata'utia and Rein but the 30-minute break, in which 21 millimetres of rain fell on Allianz Stadium, changed momentum until the second half.
The kicking game of Marshall and Widdop proved the difference, along with St George Illawarra's defence.
"I've never been involved in a game like that and Ian Millward, who was sitting next to me, coached in England for a decade and he said he'd never seen anything like it so that's one for the books," McGregor said. "We just tried to keep warm and the most important thing was to stay relaxed."
