Eels coach Brad Arthur has expressed frustration with his side being reduced to 12 men for two sin-bin offences in the loss to the Roosters.
Bailey Simonsson was sent to the sin bin for a hit on James Tedesco, with the Roosters captain facing a stint on the sidelines after he failed a HIA. Tedesco will miss the Roosters’ clash with the Storm next Thursday night under the NRL’s new concussion rules.
In addition to Simonsson, Will Penisini was sent for ten minutes for a professional foul after he failed to get back 10 metres.
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However, Arthur wasn’t convinced either incident deserved a sin bin in the moment.
“I think with Will Penisini’s one he made the effort to get back,” Arthur said.
“I don’t know if he got the full 10 metres, but he didn’t actually engage with anyone and make a tackle.
“They ran into him and Mitchell made the tackle so that is what I saw at the time.
“And the second one Simo (Simonsson) I don’t know because I didn’t see any head contact.
“But I’m not going to say that’s what happened because I need to see it closely.
“Obviously there was something wrong with James so, I didn’t see any head contact, but obviously there was.”
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Despite losing Tedesco, the Roosters never struggled in the second half to improve to a 3-1 record to start the season.
Roosters coach Robinson said he was “ropeable” about the Tedesco incident as it unfolded but softened his stance after the match.
“I was expecting a send-off,” Robinson said.
“To be honest I was ropeable at the time that it wasn’t a send-off, and then I looked at it after the game and I was a bit more 50-50 when I took some time to have a look at it.”
“I knew 10 minutes into the game that I’ve lost (Tedesco) for two weeks, so that wasn’t a great feeling,” Robinson said.
“And the first thing was I wanted to make sure that he was okay. He looked pretty good in there but we’ll have to see after tonight and tomorrow.”
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Despite the Eels losing four of their first five games, Arthur is happy with his side’s commitment and attitude.
“I’m very happy with the effort and the fight of the team all through the five games,” Arthur said.
“I know it doesn’t look great one win from the five games, but our effort and attitude towards our footy has been really good.
“There were some really costly periods there where we had to do a lot of defence obviously with 12 men for 20 minutes was costly.”
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