Blake Ferguson hasn’t tried this season and now the Parramatta winger has almost gotten close for his side with some rather weird mistakes against Cronulla.
The eels only took two points home in a soaking wet game in Kogarah on Sunday.
The result was banned at 12 points apiece for a fair time, and Parramatta only won from a penalty kick in the 70th minute.
After 17 minutes and a score of 12-12, the eels forced a dropout that should have given them the best field position.
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Instead, Ferguson had a total brain weakness collecting the ball on the sideline and then throwing a wild pass backwards to support Junior Paulo.
Paulo could only stick one leg out to stop the ball in front of him, but Sharks player Josh Dugan lunged to steal possession from the Sharks.
Fortunately for Ferguson, the opposition failed to take advantage of this mistake.
But it was only a few minutes later when Ferguson cost his site almost dearly again.
Parramatta got hold of her own possession deeply. A pass to the Origin winger slipped through his hands and fell to the ground.
The referee called continued to play – luckily for Ferguson – but Fox League commentators were stunned that it wasn’t labeled a kick-off which would have given the Sharks the chance to win the game.
“Nine times out of ten it’s a no-brainer,” said Greg Alexander.
“There aren’t many setbacks these days.”
Sharks coach John Morris agreed to Alexander after the game.
“That section that led to the scrum was a bit bizarre,” said Morris after the game.
“Blake Ferguson hits the ball as it comes out of its end. That’s a blow. We stopped at Dylan Brown and he paused, then we had another 50/50 penalty.
“Then that led to the lane mistake and then to the scrum, and you get the two points from that scrum. So it was a pretty common passage, I thought.”
On that following set, the eels won a scrum against the feed and then received the penalty that won the game.
Morris insisted Ferguson knock the ball.
“It can’t go back,” said Morris.
“Ferguson comes on the ball, runs on the ball, touches the ball and that’s a punch.
“We finished with Jesse Ramien a little earlier. Among seven who watch this game, you know this is a knock-on. Our boys stop because it’s clearly a push.
“The crowd I’m not sure what happened. It looked pretty ugly to me, but I saw a lot of them being called back year-round.
“You can’t push and now you can push. What are the rules for scrums these days?
“Can we push like that? Good game Parramatta, if we can push like that.
“But sometimes we push into scrums and we have to come back and reset them because you’re not supposed to push so I’m a little confused.”
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