Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart has been left fuming over the refusal to blow a penalty in the dying seconds of Sunday afternoon's narrow 12-10 loss to the St George Illawarra Dragons in a wet and windy Wollongong.
Playing the game through some of the worst conditions imaginable as Wollongong got smashed by howling winds of up to 70 kilometres per hour and driving rain which ultimately came in sideways and limited the crowd to a brave 7,069, the Dragons - who had the wind at their backs in the first half - went into the dressing sheds leading 12 points to 10 at halftime on the back of tries to Talatau Amone and Moses Suli.
It would ultimately be the only points the Dragons needed to get the job done, with a try to Hudson Young in the 53rd minute bringing the Raiders to within just two points of the Dragons.
They couldn't score again though, struggling with ball handling and control in the shocking conditions.
A final attacking raid with just seconds on the clock however saw the Raiders take a tackle which seemed to set things up in the middle of the park.
A Ben Hunt flop effort on Raiders' prop Joseph Tapine saw a six again signalled to the Raiders with just five seconds remaining, effectively giving the Green Machine no advantage.
Under the NRL rules however, ruck infringements, holding down in tackles and offside outside of a team's own 40-metre zone are to be penalised with six agains.
Hunt was then seen tackling Tom Starling to end the game, leaving some to suggest he wasn't square, although replays would leave that as a debatable fact.
Despite that, a clearly frustrated Stuart - whose team could have sent the game to golden point with a penalty in front - said he expected an apology from the NRL on Monday.
"What did you think? I've only seen it once," Stuart said.
“I only needed to see it once. But tomorrow I’ll get an apology.
"We set ourselves up to win that game. It was a tough, grind in the first half and in the second half we let ourselves down and lost our way.
“When you’re in high-performance business, there’s always going to be pressure, and when there’s pressure you need courage and there needed to be courage on that ruling on the last play of the day.”
The Raiders however, as they often have been, were their own worst enemy in the lead up to the final play of the game, with a failed short drop out into the wind allowing Amone to cross for the Dragons' opening try and errors a plenty marring their second half.
The loss leaves the Raiders in 11th spot on the table in what was a four-point turnaround style game, with the Dragons now sitting in eighth spot on 18 competition points. The Raiders are four points out of the top eight and will have a bye next week before facing a difficult road trip to Victoria to play the Storm.
The Dragons, on the other hand, have a seven-day turnaround before playing the Brisbane Broncos without Origin stars.