Tigers coach Tim Sheens has rubbished claims by Manly's Steve Matai that hooker Robbie Farah was faking an injury to win a penalty by confirming Farah was suffering the effects of a head-knock after the 38-20 loss to the Sea Eagles.
Farah was hit high and late by Steve Matai late in the first half and stayed down after the incident, with an eventually penalty being awarded to the Tigers.
Matai was placed on report but seemed the suggest Farah was feigning the injury and confronted the Tigers rake after the incident, which attracted a scuffle between a group of players. As a result Matai was given 10 minutes in the sin bin.
Sheens said Farah was indeed suffering the effects of a head-knock but refused the make a strong comment on the matter.
"I haven't had a good chance to talk to the doctor but he is not a good colour in there and his second half was pretty quiet accordingly," Sheens said of Farah.
"The angles that I saw I didn't give me a clear shot at it. It will be one of those things to review later rather than talk about it now."
"Again it was one of those things – there was a bit of passion into the game. It was something that dragged all 26 players into incident, so there was a little bit in it in that respect, so there was a bit of feeling, but I don't think I am going to make much more of a comment than that."
Sheens has conceded Manly was 'too strong' on Sunday afternoon, but said injuries were a factor in the match.
With Beau Ryan and Gareth Ellis already on the injury list the Tigers lost fullback Wade McKinnon to a hamstring injury the day before the match.
"They were too strong for us today. We know that. They were almost a full-strength outfit today, we have a lot of people to come back – no excuses – but we are going to have to be better if we get a chance to meet them again," Sheens said.
"We have got a fair injury list at the moment so we are nowhere near as strong as we can be so until that changes I am using the younger guys, veterans and people out of position."
"We lost our fullback yesterday in training. Sometimes those things happen, so you have just got to live with it."
"If you have been in the game enough you understand it is not meant to be for those reasons but we have got a fair list of people sitting on the sidelines that will be coming back over the next week or two so it is fortunate we have enough points on the board at the moment that to not impact us too much but it is pretty crowded where we are on the ladder at the moment."
"It was a setback today but St George was a setback a few weeks ago, it is about re-grouping."
Tigers playmaker Benji Marshall agreed with Sheens and said his side's defence was the reason for Sunday's 18-point loss.
"It was disappointing. We had a pretty good week building up and I thought our preparation was pretty solid, but as Tim said our defence let us down today," Marshall said.
"We know we can score it is just a matter of stopping them. We practiced everything they were going to throw at us and they did exactly that and we still couldn't defend it so it is disappointing."