- Stuart and Hasler are old friends and were Origin and Kangaroos teammates.
- There was no love lost when the pair faced off on Sunday.
- The rival coaches faced each other in the press conferences and outside the warehouses
They are old friends and State of Origin and Kangaroos teammates, but there was no love lost between Ricky Stuart and NRL technical rival Des Hasler on Sunday in an explosive showdown away from the TV cameras.
The Canberra great and his rival Gold Coast coach traded barbs after the Raiders’ controversial 21-20 win in which a Titans field goal attempt was smothered by an offside player, with no penalty.
Stuart said Hasler was “on another planet” after the Titans mentor criticized Kasey Badger’s officiating.
Hasler called his performance “pretty poor” after his team conceded five penalties to three and gave away eight set restarts to one for the Raiders.
Stuart responded and accused the Titans of “cheating” by fighting with his players for prolonged periods as they attempted to play the ball, suggesting they could have received “another 10 or 12” set resets.
Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart was in no mood to celebrate after his team’s narrow victory on Sunday and slammed Titans players as “cheaters”.
Titans coach Des Hasler is an old friend of Stuart’s and went to the locker room after his press conference to tell the Raiders coach what he had said.
It can now be revealed that the warring coaches had a private confrontation outside the changing rooms.
Several witnesses confirmed the incident in the tunnel which ended with Stuart allegedly saying “fuck you” to his Gold Coast counterpart Hasler, according to news corporation.
This despite the couple having a long friendship that dates back more than three decades.
Stuart and Hasler were the opening halves of the New South Wales Blues in their must-win State of Origin II match in Melbourne in 1990.
The Raiders got away with a narrow victory despite the Gold Coast Titans having a field goal to win right in front of the sticks.
As Hasler battled a leg injury sustained early in the match, Stuart broke away for a 70-metre try, showing Queensland winger Les Kiss a clean pair of heels, to help win both the match and the series.
Following that Origin performance, both Stuart and Hasler were cast in the 1990 Kangaroos tour of Britain and France.
The confrontation came after Hasler tried to do right by his old friend.
The Titans coach went to the Raiders’ sheds after blowing up at the postgame press conference and wants Stuart to hear it from him first.
However, Stuart did not take kindly to the gesture and reportedly replied: ‘Fuck you, we should have hit another 15 sixes again.’ I’m going to go hard in there. [at his media conference].’
Hasler (left, hidden by referee) and Stuart (right) were the opening halves of the New South Wales Blues in State of Origin II in 1990.
Stuart was named man of the match in that clash, in which he ran 70 meters to beat Queenslander Les Kiss and score a vital try for the Blues.
The match was not so kind to Hasler, who battled a leg injury but was picked for the Kangaroos tour that same year along with Stuart.
Compounding the problem, NRL head of football Graham Annesley confirmed on Monday that Raiders fullback Chevy Stewart was offside when he knocked down Titans captain Kieran’s field goal attempt. Foran, in the 87th minute.
Annesley’s statistics also showed that the Raiders were offside on 10 occasions that were not penalized, but overall they were in play 94 percent of the time compared to 89.4 percent for the Titans.
Hasler, who joked that he would be fined $25,000 for his rant, said “some” of the penalties were justified.
“Some of them just leave us fighting for field position all the time,” he said.