Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson has expressed his concern the one-on-one strip ruling is placing unnecessary pressure on the referees in the lead-up to the finals.
Twice the Roosters were on the end of a strip which turned the momentum of the game in favour of the Raiders, as the Tricolours ran out 22-18 winners at GIO Stadium.
While his side got the result they were after against a fellow top-four team, Robinson questioned if the new rule added to the value of the game.
"What is it, has that added to the spectacle of our game?," Robinson said.
"It's extra weight the refs are constantly looking at the ball and who's stripping.
"So, it ends up being a strip, slow play-the-ball, people in the ruck, honestly has that added value to the game?"
The controversial rule has been a hit with the fans with 59% voting in favour of the implementation of the rule in NRL.com's Fans' Poll. A total of 38% are not happy with the rule while 3% did not care either way after more than 25,000 responses.
Match Highlights: Raiders v Roosters
Robinson found an unlikely ally in Canberra coach Ricky Stuart who said he was concerned with the undue pressure being placed on the referees and they were being forced to guess.
Robinson said his criticism of the rule was not aimed at Canberra, the leading exponents of the strip in the Telstra Premiership.
"It's got nothing to do with Canberra, the rule's come in and they've exploited it really, really well, so congratulate them for that," he said.
"But who pressure-tested this to say, 'hey refs can you control the ruck, adjudicate on split-second guys coming in and out and is this adding value to the game?"
Both teams enjoyed momentum swings throughout the game with tries either side of half-time to Joseph Manu helping the Roosters to a 22-12 lead in the 52nd minute.
Robinson said it wasn't a perfect performance from the premiers but it showed the rest of the competition they can play different styles in the same 80 minutes.
"It was a bit of a stop-start game, I think that's the way they like to play," Robinson said,
"It wasn't a rhythm sort of game and that's why I was really pleased because if they wanted to go toe-to-toe we'll play that longer style game and kick-returns.
"If they wanted to play stop-start when we'd get down and dirty and play so I think there was a good combination of those two today.
"I thought we worked hard today so I think it's a really good principle game, the stuff you want to see at this time of year.
"Kick-chase and pressure and scrapping, I thought we executed fairly well, but I can still see a lot of improvement in us."
The only injury concern for the visitors was to hooker Sam Verrills (knee) who failed to play in the second half.
"I don't know what he's got because I wanted to get him back out there, but he was hurting," Robinson said.
"He's a man that doesn't complain about anything at all and I saw him trying the whole second half trying to get back out there.
"But a credit to Rads [Victor Radley] and his second role in our team to play 80 minutes and go in there at hooker."
