The NRL's head of football Graham Annesley has admitted a simple refereeing error was behind the eight-tackle set which led to a controversial try for Newcastle Knights' prop Daniel Saifiti on Sunday.
The Knights recorded a critical win over the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the contest. It leaves the Knights a win away from the finals, and the Rabbitohs now likely needing to beat the Sydney Roosters in the final week of the season for a spot in the top eight.
The try, which came with contest still well and truly in the balance, saw the referees allow an eighth tackle on what was originally a seven-tackle set for Saifiti to crash over.
Annesley explained that the missed count came in the middle of the set when two play the balls happened in 'messy' sequence right next to each other against the tryline.
"The first one was an eight-tackle set and the try scored by Daniel Saifiti [at the end of it]. We aren't making any excuses for it, it's an error, it's wrong, it's a simple refereeing error where he has miscounted the tackle," Annesley said during his footy briefing on Monday.
"[After Ponga's break] what happens is that there is no number called on the play the ball by [Kalyn] Ponga. When the ball is played on the next tackle by [Tyson] Gamble, you'll hear that we have missed a tackle basically.
"The tackles were very close together, a bit of a mess those play the balls, but there was no call of a number.
"There is no excuse for it. It's a straight miss by the referee."
Playing audio, Annesley clarified that a referee observer stationed at the ground rather than in the bunker communicates with the referee to help with tackle count, but both missed the tackle after Kalyn Ponga's break.
Annesley said other measures have been put in place during the year in an attempt to limit mistakes, but that it was a part of refereeing in the NRL with the officials getting a high percentage of decisions right.
