Mbye obstruction call hurts NRL: Fittler

The obstruction rule has again come under scrutiny after a number of controversial tries in round three of the NRL.

Moses Mbye of the Bulldogs

Canterbury's Moses Mbye crosses for a try in the NRL round three game against Penrith. (AAP)

The NRL needs to admit its officials erred in controversially awarding of a crucial try to Moses Mbye in Canterbury's two-point win over Penrith, according to rugby league legend Brad Fittler.

NRL referees boss Bernard Sutton has already conceded his officials were wrong in blowing a match-deciding penalty to Brisbane in their golden-point win over the Wests Tigers on Friday.

However, Sutton preferred to wait until a review on Monday before forming an opinion on the Mbye try, which came despite a possible obstruction by the decoy run of Will Hopoate.

Panthers five-eighth James Maloney was checked by Hopoate, but recovered in time to attempt to stop Mbye before ultimately missing the tackle.

Fittler said the decision would encourage defenders to take dives in the future.

"Now every half or every person in James Maloney's position is going to dive," Fittler said on the Nine Network.

"James Maloney normally dives. He's normally a diver. He would dive nine times out of 10.

"I know next week he's going to dive because of that situation.

"(The referees) just got it wrong.

"How they thought that James still had a chance to make the tackle fairly - a video review person mentioned it.

"That's the call that hurts you because everyone that misses it will go back to that particular call.

"I pray that they come out and say they got it wrong."

Fittler's comments come after Canberra coach Ricky Stuart lashed out at the referees following what he claims were two more controversial obstruction decisions in his team's loss to the Warriors.

Sutton said the whistleblowers were allowed to apply discretion to obstruction rulings.

"With obstruction, the on-field referees and review officials, there is some discretion, which they can apply to those obstructions to assess the significance of the contact," Sutton told AAP.

"What I need to remind the guys of is to be really cautious in applying that discretion when there's contact and the try is scored immediately adjacent to where that happened.

"We haven't made a full assessment of that (Mbye) decision at this point, we'll get back together on Monday and go through it in a lot more detail."


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Source: AAP



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