Griffith 7

THE Griffith Blacks have some serious questions to answer after losing their third game in a row, this time to the last-placed Cootamundra Tricolours in the side's most disappointing effort this Southern Inland Rugby season.

The Blacks were runaway leaders early on this year after stringing together six wins, but the side has now lost three of its last four games and much of the momentum gained as the competition prepares to be split in half.

Griffith captain-coach Luke McKay said a combination of being off-put by the standard of refereeing combined with playing into the Tricolours' hands defensively was behind the humbling defeat.

"Part of our problem in the first half was that we got extremely frustrated with the ref, which was hard not to do," McKay said.

"We went from a ref last week who had absolute control over the game to our ref yesterday who just blew his whistle and didn't give you any explanation about the penalty.

"Our frustration boiled up a bit and we started thinking about taking our aggression out, which is great, we just have to channel it in the right way."

A lack of a quick track also hampered the side's speed out wide, but as they looked to try and combat a Cootamundra pack without three of their important big men, with Andrew Vitucci, Paul Batson and Junior Ashby all unavailable for the clash.

"I think we'll respond a lot better now we have to work hard, I think it'll be good motivation for everyone to lift the work rate and get right into it," McKay said of the rest of the season in the top six.

"What was positive was that our second half (on Saturday) was a massive turnaround, we came out looking a lot better and went back to our structure and identified where we could attack them.

“We got a couple of phases going and got into a bit of a rhythm and it was really pleasing we saw that they were always following the ball open, so we’d hit a couple of rucks one way and then go back the other way.”

Cootamundra made the most of their glut of possession in the first half to score their first for the day off the back of two penalties.

Before a contentious try, where McKay looked to have held up the ball carrier, only to see a player in front of him had in fact touched down, saw the Tricolours grab a handy 18-0 lead.

Kolo Lomu gave the Blacks a sniff of a miraculous comeback, but one final try to Coota sealed one of the biggest upsets this season and left Griffith’s title aspirations looking shaky for now.