Marist Brothers High School has lodged a protest to the Fiji Secondary Schools Rugby Union regarding the Coke Zero Deans final last weekend.
In a statement signed by school principal, John Atalifo and Marist under 18 team manager, Lekima Nasau, Marist Brothers raised concern with the conduct of the match officials during the 8-5 final loss against Ratu Kadavulevu School.
The issue at hand is when Marist were hot on attack and the fly half made a cross-kick directly into the hands of the winger, who headed straight underneath the posts to score a try and increase Marist’s lead.
The referee initially awarded the try but reversed the decision after his assistant pointed out that the Marist winger was in an off-side position when he received the ball.
Marist officials say the touch-judge did not raise his flag, until after the try had been awarded.
The statement also points out the inconsistencies in some of the referee’s decisions, such as flashing a yellow card to a Marist player for an infringement, but a late tackle by an RKS player only received a warning.
The Fiji Secondary School Rugby Union declined to make a comment on the issue.