Ben Hunt savaged over 'disgraceful' act amid Zac Lomax history in NRL thrashing of Tigers

St George Illawarra captain Ben Hunt has been blasted by angry NRL fans over an unnecessary act of poor sportsmanship during his side's record-breaking win against the hapless Wests Tigers on Friday night. Zac Lomax set a new point-scoring record for the joint-venture club as he and Hunt backed up brilliantly from their State of Origin efforts in a 56-14 humiliation of the Tigers in Wollongong.

Lomax scored a hat-trick of tries and kicked a perfect 10-from-10 with the boot to set a new club record of 32 points in an NRL game. The Blues winger - who also impressed on his Origin debut in a losing NSW side on Wednesday night - put on a stunning individual performance as the Tigers completely imploded in the second half - beaten 44-0 after leading 14-12 at the break.

Hunt was also outstanding for the Dragons after his Origin exertions for the victorious Maroons on Wednesday night. The veteran Dragons skipper scored a try to go with four try assists and a line break in an outstanding display that showed no signs of tiredness despite his heroics on the Origin arena just 48 hours earlier.

But for all the good work Hunt did throughout the contest, he was called out by angry viewers for what some described as a "disgraceful" act against rival forward Samuela Fainu. The Dragons halfback jinked his way across the tryline after exposing some non-existent Tigers defence before diving over to score an easy try.

Ben Hunt criticised over 'gutless' act on rival player

But as he got to his feet, Hunt threw the footy straight into the stomach of Fainu, seemingly angry at the contact from the Tigers forward as he slid over to try and prevent the try. Fainu's effort was in vain as Hunt had already grounded the ball but replays showed there didn't appear to be too much in the contact, prompting backlash against Hunt for his actions.

Record-breaker Zac Lomax cleared over mid-air tackle

Lomax's record-breaking night was only soured slightly by a mid-air collision with Solomon Alaimalo, who had to be taken from the field. Lomax had eyes for the footy after racing to get onto the end of a high kick but got his timing all wrong and hit Alaimalo in his mid-section, causing the Tigers winger to get injured as he landed awkwardly.

Lomax was placed on report but was cleared by the match review committee on Saturday. Only a grade-three dangerous contact charge would have impacted his NSW Origin availability but the Dragons star didn't think there was much in it when speaking after the game. "I was going for the ball," he said. I copped a bit of a knock and I don't really know what happened. I was watching the ball. I had eyes for the ball and went to go up for the ball and just copped a hit."

For the Wests Tigers and coach Benji Marshall it's now nine straight defeats and they are at risk of ending the round in last on the ladder if the Rabbitohs beat the Titans. The Tigers - who led 10-0 early on and then by two points at halftime - fell apart in the second half and only managed to get to an end-of-set kick just twice in the entire second 40 minutes.

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"Very disappointing. We seem to say the same thing every week, which is unfortunate," Marshall said. "To have as many errors as what we did, Schoolboy errors to be honest, is unacceptable. I feel sorry for fans to have to watch that capitulation in the second half."

with AAP