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Wests Tigers deny deliberate NRL penalties

Mar 20th, 2018
Mar 20th, 2018

Benji Marshall insists the Wests Tigers aren't deliberately giving away penalties on their own line in a bid to reset their defence.

The Tigers have given away a competition-high 24 penalties this year. The 18 they gave away against Melbourne was the most by a team in any game since 2002, according to NRL.com figures.

It's in stark contrast to the Tigers' figures from last season, when they were penalised an average of 5.3 times per match - the equal lowest in the competition.

However it's done little to hurt their defence, given the Tigers conceded just one try to the Sydney Roosters and Storm in each shock victory.

Marshall has since praised the determination of the team, noting the Tigers of old would not have had the resolve to turn away teams after giving away penalties at their own end.

But he scoffed at any suggestion it was a deliberate ploy from his side used to help reset their defensive line while under the pump.

"We're not giving them away intentionally," Marshall said.

"It's not a tactic. We're not giving them away on purpose. If we have to defend a penalty on the tryline, we'll defend it."

The majority of the Tigers' penalties came in clumps on Saturday night against Melbourne.

Luke Brooks and Elijah Taylor gave away a combined four in two minutes and 45 seconds early in the first half against the Storm.

There were also two back to back later in the half, while eight were blown between the 57th and 70th minutes - four of them while Ben Matulino was in the sin-bin for a professional foul.

Of the 18 penalties, seven were for offside or ruck infringements within their own 20m zone. In fairness, most of those came at the back end of the second half as the Tigers were scrambling with 12 men.

But fellow co-captain Chris Lawrence sided with Marshall's claims there was nothing intentional in the count.

"A number were 50-50 calls and, in games sometimes, they go your way. Sometimes you get them and sometimes you don't," Lawrence said.

"There were a number of penalties that were just ill-disciplined and, obviously, we were trying to slow the Melbourne ruck down (but not concede penalties).

"Just little things that were poor discipline areas - they're the type of ones we can get out of the game and, obviously, those 50-50 calls sometimes you're going to get."


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