Final top four spot remains open after bunker controversy

A spot in the top four is still open for the finals chasing pack, with the Parramatta Eels delivering a shock upset against the Warriors in Auckland.

However, it would not be without controversy, with the bunker playing a significant part in the Eels’ 26-22 win.

While the margin may have been close in the end, Parramatta led throughout the entire game.

Josh Addo-Carr, in his 200th NRL game, scored the first try of the match, having run over 95 metres to score.

The Eels would double their lead through Jack Williams before Adam Pompey managed to get the Warriors on the scoreboard, leaving them down by only eight points at halftime.

In the second half, the boys in yellow and blue picked up where they left off to lead 20-4 with 30 minutes to go.

But the Warriors came storming back with tries from Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Leka Halasima, helping bring the margin into four points.

With five minutes left to go, the Warriors looked like they had tied the match with Demitric Vaimauga forcing a drop from Isaiah Iongi, which resulted in Adam Pompey scoring a try and then would have an opportunity to give themselves the lead with a successful conversion.

The try, however, was overturned by the bunker as they believed that Vaimauga had knocked on the ball in the play.

This would help see the Eels run the match out and claim back-to-back wins in New Zealand, and now sees them sit in 12th place on the ladder.

It also adds another win against a top-eight side under their belt, having now beaten the Roosters, Broncos and now the Warriors in the last six weeks.

Reacting to the decision in the press conference, Warriors coach Andrew Webster was less than impressed.

“I don’t know if there’s enough evidence to overturn it that he touched it,” he said.

“I can’t tell if he touched it or not, but I’m pretty biased with four minutes to go, so I’m going to have to rely on everyone else there for now and watch it slow-mo.

“But I can promise you right now, we should not have been in that situation through the way we played.”

But in the eyes of Eels coach Jason Ryles, he felt that it was indeed a knock on, noting that Vaimauga said that he did, in fact, knock the ball forward.

“The kid thought it was (a no try), there was no disputing that,” he said, but was later pressed on the matter further,” Ryles stated.

“The referee tonight and the Bunker had a lot of decisions to make. For me, that’s a knock on every day of the week.

“But who am I to say? Sometimes you get the calls and sometimes you don’t, and we have had a lot of times where we haven’t got the calls, that’s the reality.

“They are human in the middle and they are human in the Bunker, but if you’re asking my pure opinion? That went forward, every day of the week.

“I don’t even know why you are asking the question.... I know you need to ask the questions and that, but at the end of the day, the referees are out there to do a job, and it is not easy.

With the Warriors’ loss, it now means that either Brisbane or Cronulla could find themselves sitting in fourth for the final round of the season.

The Warriors finish their home and away season against the Sea-Eagles next Friday at Brookvale Oval.

The Eels, meanwhile, will play in the final game of the regular season as they look to beat the Knights at CommBank Stadium on Sunday week.