Smith says Eels will use the rules - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Smith says Eels will use the rules

By Darren Walton 23/03/2003 09:20:15 PM Comments (0)

Parramatta coach Brian Smith will employ deliberate stalling tactics in a bid to milk penalties after having forward Steve Crouch controversially reported in Sunday's National Rugby League match at WIN Stadium.

Smith was fuming after Crouch was reported when video referee Graeme West had the luxury of extra checks of Crouch's lifting tackle on St George Illawarra prop Craig Stapleton.

On-field referee Tim Mander hadn't seen anything untoward in Crouch's tackle, but was forced to stop play when Stapleton required treatment for a shoulder injury that Dragons coach Nathan Brown claimed would sideline him for six to eight weeks.

The Dragons won the game 30-28 when Reece Simmonds scored a late try, leaving Parramatta winless and in a share of last place with Penrith and South Sydney.

"The one with the supreme view (of the tackle) was the bloke with the whistle," Smith said.

"I will be - and I make no bones about it - from now on instructing and coaching my players....that at any time they feel as though they have been hit in the head, turned upside down or (if) any other form of illegality may have been committed, we will lay on the ground.

"Let the referee blow time out and give the blokes upstairs an opportunity (to have a look at it).

"That's the obvious tactics of the current era that we live in."

When asked for his opinion on Smith's veiled shots at his team's supposed `tactics', Brown said: "I thought we just played within the rules."

Dragons captain Lance Thompson even accused the Eels of "submitting a fair bit in the tackle".

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