NRL 2022: Justin Holbrook fumes at officials, Parramatta Eels vs Gold Coast Titans, Round 1

A clearly frustrated Holbrook took aim at the officials and the captain’s challenge in a fiery post match press conference after the Titans had one failed captain’s challenge to three successful ones for the Eels.

“Yeah definitely,” Holbrook replied when asked if the lopsided penalty count was a tough pill to swallow.

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“I’m not here to take anything away from Parramatta. Good luck to them it is not about that.

“It is about us as a club being not one of the big clubs and not getting anything.

“If they are 50/50 then make them 50/50s. Give us a couple and give them a couple and we are happy. I’m not asking for 7-1 and 3-0 in the captain’s challenges.

“You are better off getting me to talk about the first half and the officials to do the second half rather than now you are asking me 10 minutes after a game.

“We had a great opportunity to try and win a footy game taken away from us. I don’t know if we were good enough or not.

“I’m not here to take anything away from Parramatta, but defensively we struggled in the first half, but we fought our way back with some great footy and scored some terrific tries.

“Then the second half we got a try early and then we are peppering their line with a captain’s challenge and it is, did the ball touch the leg or not and then 20 minutes later we are in the ruck and it was did the leg touch the ball? Someone tell me the difference because it has a big bearing on the game.

“Either make it 50/50 or get rid of the captain’s challenge because it is not favouring us and it never has and it has a big baring on a game.

“That first half of footy was exciting and there was a lot of tries. The second half if I wasn’t coaching them I would have fallen asleep.

“The game didn’t ever flow the whole second half. It was so disappointing to watch my team just continually defend their line and never get a chance to try and win the game.

“That’s the way I feel and I’m just being honest.”

Holbrook also took aim at a call that went against his captain Tino Fa’asuamaleaui due to some intervention from the match officials in the stands.

“If he doesn’t kick that ball he runs through,” Holbrook explained.

“So the referee cleared that. Then he gets the call and overturns it. So if you are going to get a call and overturn it then overturn them all.

“When they scored in the corner and they called forward he said na and disregarded that.

“You either go with the officials or you don’t go with them. You can’t pick and choose when you want to and when you can’t.

“We are a club who had a great opportunity to come down today and beat one of the heavyweights with a chance to win the comp for our whole region that is flooded.

“We had a responsibility for our group to try and put some smiles on some faces. And I don’t know if we would have got there anyway. I’m not here to complain about that or take anything away from Parramatta. They got the job done.

“The first thing you asked me was about decisions and we were on the wrong end of them all last year and again.

“I don’t know why. Your asking me to answer questions I don’t know the answer to.”

Originally published as ‘Not one of the big clubs’: Titans coach complains of bias in post-match rant