THE NRL has endorsed every decision made by State of Origin III referees Gerard Sutton and Ben Cummins — in a bitter blow for whingeing Maroons who still refuse to accept they were beaten fairly and squarely.

In a unanimous show of approval for the men in the middle, NRL referees boss Tony Archer supported the decision to:

●PUNISH a severely ill-disciplined Maroons side 12-3 in the penalty count after they were kept on the back foot by a dominant NSW side;

●AWARD Andrew Fifita a controversial try; and

●SIN bin Fifita and Maroons halfback Cooper Cronk.

media_camera Two players went to the sin bin during Origin III.

NSW’s 18-14 victory came off the back of a dominant performance that had Queensland reeling for most of the night as the Blues enjoyed 60 per cent of the possession.

The Maroons had little choice but to give away penalties to try and slow the Blues’ momentum.

Despite Queensland winning every penalty count at Suncorp Stadium for the past five years, it didn’t stop those north of the border moaning that NSW were awarded a favourable count in Sydney.

Archer said the Maroons deserved to be penalised and he was happy with his referees’ performances.

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“Yeah, I am. Going into game two I reminded the referees that if there were infringements in the ruck or on the 10 metres, my expectation is they penalise to ensure there is a flow to the game,” Archer said.

“There was a period of penalties when NSW was in a strong attacking position, there were about four penalties in seven or eight minutes.

“I expected the referees to penalise those that infringe and I was comfortable about what they did in that period of the game. (Wednesday night) was a really difficult game to referee and I thought they handled it well.”

media_camera Fifita’s try was hotly disputed.

Archer backed the referees — and video referee Bernard Sutton — in three contentious moments — a try to NSW’s Andrew Fifita and the sin-binning of Fifita and Queensland’s Cooper Cronk. Each call was spot-on, according to Archer.

Fifita’s try was controversial with Queensland suggesting Michael Jennings, who was chasing a kick ahead from Robbie Farah, was off-side.

“There was a live decision on-field that was ‘try’, the question really to be answered was the role of Michael Jennings in the play. The interpretation that relates to this incident is whether or not the player (Jennings) is active or passive. For a player to be active, he has to impact or influence the game, for a player to be passive, he has no influence over the game,” Archer said.

“At the point in which the ball is kicked, Michael Jennings is in front of the player who kicks the ball (Farah). As all the players retreat back towards the ball, Andrew Fifita, who is on-side, takes possession of the ball and grounds it. When you see Fifita take possession of the ball, there are three Queensland players who have also retreated back to the ball and Jennings is behind them and is having no influence on the game at that point. So I understand the decision and it being a correct decision.”

Asked by NRL.com. whether he was satisfied with the sin-binnings, Archer said: “I certainly am. Obviously they were for two different reasons. Cooper Cronk was involved in tackling Wade Graham off the ball when he was chasing through in an attacking play. Obviously that is a professional foul and should have been sin-binned.

media_camera Andrew Fifita was sin binned for this grab on Gavin Cooper.

“Andrew Fifita was a different scenario. Queensland scored a try and post-try, he had run a fair distance and got involved in taking hold of (tryscorer) Gavin Cooper’s neck and pulled him away from the play. That escalated into an incident that needed not to have occurred. Very comfortable for the referee to sin bin him for him to cool off.”

NSW coach Laurie Daley said he regretted questioning the performances of Cummins and Sutton after game one.

“I was disappointed how I reacted after game one with the referees. It’s a tough job and I respect their position and I let my self down after game one with that criticism,” Daley said. “The refs have to referee what they see. It’s a difficult job so it’s not for me to add any more fuel to the fire.”