Straight six … Trent Barrett, second left, shows his frustration last night.
Photo: Steve Christo

SMH

Cronulla's perennial bad boy, Paul Gallen, looks set to confront the NRL judiciary for a high tackle on Craig Wing that left the Rabbitohs player stunned in last night's game, which saw the Sharks suffer their sixth straight loss.

But Cronulla coach Ricky Stuart - diverting attention from his team's horror run - was more worried about the functioning of the dual-referee system, which he has called a failure.

"My players are improving but the two referees on the field ain't," Stuart said in a fiery spray at referees boss Robert Finch.

Stuart said he decided to hit out publicly because the two-referee system was not improving and the raft of bad decisions was gaining momentum.

He was furious over the allocation of two inexperienced officials in last week's game in Adelaide and said most of his fellow NRL coaches would agree with him.

Stuart called for every game to have one experienced referee in control and the inexperienced referee monitoring the ruck.

His outburst distracted from the more immediate problem facing the Sharks if Gallen is sidelined again. Last night, he was critical in providing the team's forward charge and was defensively dominant.

But just 30 minutes into his first appearance since being suspended for a fortnight after using a forearm on Bulldogs five-eighth Ben Roberts, Gallen's high shot could see him again warming the bench rather than sizzling on the field.

"I probably tackled him too hard," Gallen said. "I didn't see anything wrong with it."

Asked if he was concerned that he could be charged, Gallen replied: "Yes, I am."

Gallen's hit put Wing into the dressing rooms for the second half. Souths coach Jason Taylor said the club doctor would not allow Wing back on immediately after half-time because of concussion. "He knew who we were playing, but he didn't know the moves and stuff. But he came good a bit later and we used him in the last 15 minutes," Taylor said.

The two referees, Ben Cummins and Alan Shortall, missed the contentious tackle on the field but were obviously tipped off about it later, with one of them running up to Gallen and warning: "We missed it, but keep it down."

Depending on the severity of any grading by the match review panel, Gallen, 27, could lose the opportunity to play for Australia in the Anzac Test. Still, his State of Origin chances may not have been harmed.

While Gallen's hard play may cost his side in the coming weeks, last night's effort from the Sharks was, at times, atrocious. None more so than the botched attempt by the usually reliable winger David Simmons when he had only to catch a nice bouncing ball and plonk it over a wide-open tryline midway through the second half. Instead, he fumbled the ball and ended up kicking it dead.

Stuart, however, wouldn't hear any criticism of his team. He applauded their courage in adversity. "I know a lot of other clubs where they would have the towel thrown in by now, at 22-6 down, but not these blokes," he said. "I am really proud to be involved with them."

Unlike Stuart, Souths coach Jason Taylor said he was a fan of the new refereeing. "I like the two-referee system, I think it is an improvement … Cleaning up the rucks and speeding up the game in the ruck was what decision-makers were after, that was how I thought it would go and it seems to be going that way," he said.

Taylor was happy to collect the two points after a month without triumph but was realistic about the improvement needed by his team. "In the main, we were disappointed with the way we played. There were too many soft tries," he said.