Roosters coach in frosty clash with Johnathan Thurston over grand final controversy

Johnathan Thurston wanted to know exactly what Trent Robinson thought of the refereeing controversy that marred the NRL grand final.

Robinson didn’t want a bar of it.

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In highly awkward scenes immediately after Sunday’s decider, Robinson was somewhat grilled by Thurston over the blunder that’s left the NRL world in shock.

But it probably wasn’t the right time.

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“Ben Cummins in that set he waved six to go and then calls it fifth tackle, what are your thoughts on that?” Thurston asked Robinson.

“He yelled six to go and you scored off the back of that.”

Robinson replied: “Are you talking about the refereeing for the whole game? Look I don’t know do you feel as though we got lucky there JT?”

Thurston pressed on: “No I was just saying he called six to go and then he said it was fifth tackle, so I was just asking what your thoughts are on that?”

To which Robinson fired back: “Mate my thoughts? Honestly if you are bringing that up at this time there could have been lots of decisions that we want to go through.”

“What are my thoughts on that? I thought that we were under the pump for a lot of that game and we fought hard and we won the game.

“I felt like there was a lot of controversy at different times and we decided to take advantage of it. We decided to make a difference and change the momentum of the game and we did.”

Controversial call mars grand final

The Sydney Roosters became the first team to record back-to-back premierships in 26 years, however their 14-8 win will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

The Roosters ensured they sent retiring champion halfback Cooper Cronk out a winner, as they successfully defended their title on Sunday night at ANZ Stadium, but referee Cummins' gaffe which led to James Tedesco's winning try is set to be debated fiercely.

After a season in which the referees have frequently had the spotlight on them, they will again dominate headlines following an incident which is set to create headaches for Rugby League Central.

With the scores tied at 8-8, the Raiders had the Roosters on the rack and looked to have earned a repeat set when Tedesco failed to reel in a Jack Wighton bomb.

Cummins waved his arms in the air to signal six again but, when Wighton was tackled with the ball, they ruled a turnover.

Heartbreakingly for Ricky Stuart's side, the Roosters scored off the next set with Luke Keary exploding down the blind side and Latrell Mitchell producing a beautiful flick pass to unlock Daniel Tupou for Tedesco to score between the posts.

While he has been outspoken in his criticism of referees throughout his career, Stuart bit his tongue, saying he didn't want to take the gloss off the Roosters' historic win.

"Instead of me saying what I think and then getting abused by everybody in regards to my unsportsmanship manner, you write what you think," Stuart said.

"The first thing I did when I went onto the field was congratulate the four officials. No one goes out there to make a mistake."

Robinson later added: "You can talk about lots of decisions throughout the game.

"But we nailed the execution on the opportunity we have."

with AAP