NRL admits to 'incorrect' forward pass call in Manly's 19-16 loss to Parramatta NRL head of football Graham Annesley has admitted Manly was on the end of an incorrect forward pass call in the final minute of their 19-16 loss to Parramatta.
The Sea Eagles looked set to pull off a thrilling comeback from 18-2 down when they trailed by three points, before a Reuben Garrick try was wrongly denied in the 80th minute.
A Tom Trbojevic ball put Garrick over the line from 20 metres out, only for touch judge Liam Kennedy to advise referee Ben Cummins the pass was forward.
Replays appeared to show the ball had gone backwards out of the hand before travelling forward in the air, making it a legal play.
"The forward pass call was incorrect," Annesley said.
"But it was called by the touch judge just as it would have been last year. A second referee would have had no impact on that decision."
Eels half-back Mitchell Moses said he believed the pass was "100 per cent" forward.
"It happens, it's rugby league," Moses told ABC Grandstand.
"I'm just happy they [match officials] got the right call."
Manly coach Des Hasler said the Sea Eagles did not get the "rub of the green" with refereeing calls against the Eels.
But he said his team should not have been 16 points down late in the match.
"To be truthful we probably shouldn't have been in that position coming down to the last play," Hasler said.
"But I was very impressed with the way this group fought back."
Hasler was unimpressed with the consistency in ruck speed.
"For the first time a real inconsistency in the six-again call, so I will be talking to [senior referees manager] Bernard Sutton about that," he said.
"I'm still encouraged by what I'm seeing, but we don't want to take it too far."
The forward pass call overshadowed what was a real litmus test for the Eels in the first match against another genuine contender this season.
The win kept the Eels atop the ladder and gave them their best start to a season in 31 years.
Sharks survive pre-match scare
Cronulla overcame a pre-match temperature check drama to claim its first win of the season, a thrilling 26-16 result over North Queensland in Townsville.
The win came after six members of the Sharks team, including halves Shaun Johnson and Matt Moylan, all failed temperature checks upon arrival at the Cowboys' home ground.
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