Stars in heated post-match scenes as 'annoyed' Benji Marshall questions state of officiating

Wests Tigers stars Sunia Turuva and Samuela Fainu were involved in a confrontation with Raiders' hooker Tom Starling after fulltime in the Tigers 33-14 win at Leichhardt Oval on Thursday.

While most players were embracing and shaking hands at the conclusion of the match, cameras caught Turuva and Starling as they exchanged words and yanked at each other's jerseys before being separated.

Fainu then grabbed Starling by the jersey before players from both sides got between the pair.

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Perhaps the clash after fulltime was linked to a penalty the Tigers were awarded in the first half, when Starling was ruled to have made high contact on Turuva, even though replays showed the contact was minimal.

After referee Ashley Klein awarded the penalty, Turuva had words with Starling before Tigers centre Taylan May came in and rubbed Starling's head as players from both sides rushed in.

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The brief altercation after the whistle was not mentioned post-match by Tigers coach Benji Marshall, who criticised the "inconsistency of the refereeing" after skipper Api Koroisau was placed on report twice.

While there was plenty to be happy about for Tigers fans as halfback Adam Doueihi starred with 17 points in front of a sold out crowd with Wests solidifying second spot on the NRL ladder, Marshall could not look past the officiating as Koroisau faces time on the sidelines.

The hooker was cited for an apparent hip-drop on Noah Martin in the first half, and a lifting tackle on Zac Hosking in the second.

The hip-drop on Martin in the 25th minute led to Koroisau being sent to the sin bin, when he landed on Martin's legs in a desperate try-saving effort.

Koroisau has already been cited three times this season for dangerous contact and is staring at a ban.

In round five he had a guilty hip drop charge, a dangerous contact charge for a cannonball tackle in round two and a tripping charge in round three.

While praising his side's remarkable defensive effort to hold the Raiders to nil in the second half, Marshall spoke about the standard of refereeing.

"It's probably not a good time, but who cares? The inconsistency of the refereeing is annoying me at the moment, to be honest," Marshall said

"I know we won, but just some of the calls were ... hard to understand."

When asked about Koroisau's sin bin for the hip drop, Marshall said: "I don't know what he's supposed to do in that situation.

"He's making a cover tackle from behind, of course he's going to land on his legs.

"Where is he supposed to go? He's coming from behind, making a cover tackle, where he has to tackle his legs. That's where he is going to end up."

As for the hooker's lifting tackle on Hosking, Marshall said Koroisau should have used the captain's challenge to try to overturn the call.

While the charges against Koroisau put a dampener on the night, Marshall spoke glowingly of halfback Doueihi, who bagged two tries, kicked four goals and added a late field goal to push his case to be part of NSW's squad for the series opener on May 27.

Ahead of the match Blues great Andrew Johns pushed for Doueihi to be part of the Blues team because of his versatility.

And Marshall was not shying away from such claims.

"It was his best game, impact wise, positioning, and where he played in the team," he said.

"Setting up everyone else and putting himself in the picture, kicking game, controlling the game.

"Andrew Johns is a pretty good judge of talent so if he's saying that, then yeah, put him in."

The Tigers will be away the next two weeks as they travel to Cronulla to play the Sharks and then head to AAMI Park to play Melbourne.