'As tight a decision as you can get': Annesley backs call to deny Api try

NRL head of football Graham Annesley has confirmed that the Bunker made the right call to disallow a controversial try to Wests Tigers captain Api Koroisau in Saturday night’s loss to Brisbane.

Koroisau dived over from dummy half in the 25th minute and referee Grant Atikins awarded a try but the decision was overturned by senior review official Peter Gough after detecting a slight separation between the Fiji hooker’s hand and the ball.

The ruling sparked controversy as the Broncos led just 10-0 at the time but video replays at Annesley’s Monday review of Round 8 incidents showed that Koroisau lost his grasp of the ball and did not regain it before the ball hit the ground.

Gough could be heard to ask for camera angles to determine whether Koroisau’s thumb had retained contact with the ball, which it didn’t appear to.

“Under the strict interpretation of the rule I can understand how the Bunker came up with that decision,” Annesley said.

“I also completely understand those that say, ‘if that’s the rule, then the rule should be reconsidered’, but if the rule was reconsidered what happens when there is a far bigger separation than that.

“How do you draw the distinction between what is acceptable and what is not. The Bunker operated within the existing rule, but I understand that other argument that without slow motions and replays that has always been a try.”

According to the rules for grounding the ball:

• A player who has had possession or touches/touched the ball and knocks the ball forward must regain possession (catch, hold or grip) prior to the ball hitting the ground, another player, goal post or cross bar.  

The rule was introduced after former Manly winger Akuila Uate was incorrectly awarded a try in a 2017 match against Newcastle, which the Sea Eagles won 18-14.

Replays showed that Uate lost the ball in the act of scoring and did not regain contact with it until the ball had hit the ground.

“Once the ball comes away from the hand, then the player has to be clearly able to regrip and regain control of the ball,” Annesley said.

“Catching up with it is not regripping it because obviously you get to a point where the ground intervenes and of course the ball is going to stop at that point and the hand is going to be firmly on the ball.

“It’s about what happens as the ball is heading to the ground and this is as tight a decision as you can get – the difference between try and no try.

“But I can absolutely guarantee that if the Bunker had cleared that try there would be people up in arms that he clearly lost the ball and under your own rules that should have been no try.

“They would have been throwing that back at us because that’s what the rule says. That was an application of the rule as it currently stands.”