It did not take Paul Gallen long to again land in trouble but the Indigenous All Stars have managed to seal a late 20-6 win over their NRL rivals.
Critics of the All Stars concept would have again been sharpening their knives after a flat first half in front of a healthy 23,177-strong Gold Coast crowd on Friday night.
The fans were most vocal when they booed NRL All Stars forward Gallen, who was placed on report in the fourth minute for a forearm and head slam that left Kyle Turner groggy.
It was not a good look for Gallen in his return from a backdated ban over Cronulla’s supplements saga.
However, crowd favourites the Indigenous All Stars finally provided bang for the punters’ buck in the latter half of a match played in quarters.
Greg Inglis locked up the scores at 6-6 when he spectacularly latched onto a Tyrone Roberts cross field kick in the 51st minute.
And they had the crowd on their feet when Johnathan Thurston’s perfect cut out pass found Will Chambers in the 65th.
Thurston potted a 76th minute penalty before lock Chris Grevsmuhl crossed two minutes from time to ice the result, giving his team an overall 3-2 advantage in the All Stars tally.
The crowd’s only complaint was the video referee not awarding a 79th minute Dane Gagai try after an NRL All Stars short kick re-start went awry.
All in all, it was not a fun night for the NRL All Stars.
Besides Gallen, Manly playmaker Kieran Foran caused concern when he was concussed in the lead-up to an Antonio Winterstein no try in the 63rd minute.
The NRL All Stars led 6-0 at halftime after South Sydney centre Dylan Walker controversially broke the deadlock in the 29th minute.
The video referees gave it the green light despite NRL backrower Beau Scott possibly obstructing Thurston before Walker fed off Matt Moylan and crashed over in the corner.
NRL boss Dave Smith this week stopped short of guaranteeing the All Stars game’s future after slow initial ticket sales and the withdrawal of injured big name players marred the lead-up to the event’s 2015 return following a 12-month hiatus.
NRL All Stars coach Wayne Bennett was forced to defend the concept, saying critics should look at the big picture and see the difference the game’s lead-up makes on indigenous communities.
New St George Illawarra recruit George Rose was named the Preston Campbell Medallist as man of the match.
