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NSW's Fittler okay with penalty-try denial

3 minute read

NSW's Brad Fittler says Josh Addo-Carr would have scored if he wasn't taken out late in the State of Origin decider, but is fine with the no penalty-try call.

JOSH ADDO-CARR
JOSH ADDO-CARR Picture: Scott Barbour/Getty Images

NSW coach Brad Fittler has refused to bite on Josh Addo-Carr being denied a crucial late penalty-try in the Blues' 20-14 State of Origin decider loss.

With four minutes to go and NSW down by six, Addo-Carr was taken off the ball by Corey Allan as he chased through on his own kick.

The play was sent to the bunker for a possible penalty-try, but given he was 15 metres out Steve Chiddy claimed it was too far out to award it and instead sin-binned Allan.

Addo-Carr was closest to the ball when he was taken out and had a penalty-try been awarded NSW would have had a shot at goal from in front to level the scores.

"Him getting sin-binned was the most they could get out of it," Fittler said.

"I would like to back Fox against anyone in that situation.

"Would he have scored it? Yes. But it's not a penalty-try."

According to the NRL's rules, a penalty-try is awarded if in the referee's opinion, "a try would have been scored but for the unfair play of the defending team".

The NSW winger was easily the quickest man on the field, but that cannot be taken into account when the bunker determines its decision.

However, that wasn't the end of a bizarre finish to the match, with a captain's challenge taken by the Blues on the siren.

With 10 seconds remaining, Junior Paulo attempted to offload only for Queensland to scoop up the ball and run it out.

NSW challenged in the hope of a strip, but the bunker determined there was no illegal play.

They did, however, find a knock-on from Harry Grant and called a Queensland error, but given the siren went as Jake Friend ran the ball out no scrum could be packed.

Ultimately, it was a fitting final play to one of the strangest seasons in the game's history.

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