LIVEWIRE St George Illawarra five-eighth Jamie Soward has been dubbed the "milkman" by rival players because he keeps conning penalties out of referees.
Soward is certain to cop plenty of lip from North Queensland players at WIN Stadium today after he copped a sledging barrage against the Gold Coast Titans last Monday.
The "milkman'' tag started after the Dragons' controversial victory over the Bulldogs, when Soward was at the centre of the Greg Eastwood obstruction penalty that saw video referee Steve Clark sacked.
But last Monday Titans captain Scott Prince labelled Soward a "diver'' and repeatedly branded him "the milkman'' when he was down hurt after a high tackle from Esi Tonga. The spray from Prince was so fierce that Dragons winger Wendell Sailor felt compelled to intervene.
Whether he was actually hurt or trying to win a penalty for his team, Soward shook off the effects of the Tonga hit to spearhead a Dragons attacking raid at the Gold Coast line from the next set of six tackles.
Gold Coast five-eighth Mat Rogers admitted that type of gamesmanship can "annoy the hell out of you'', but he also commended Soward for getting away with it. "Maybe he is milking a few but good luck to him, he's playing good footy,'' Rogers said.
"When you're playing good footy, things tend to go your way. If he wasn't playing good footy and he was doing it then there'd probably be a lot of carry on, but he's probably the form half in the comp."
"I'll never begrudge a guy for using every bit of gamesmanship he can to win a game. If it came down to the grand final and it was that play (the penalty against Eastwood), then it would be talked about for the next 100 years."
"I don't know if I'd do it, but that's footy. I don't think Wayne Bennett would be too disappointed in it. I wish him all the best if that's what he's doing.''
Titans chief executive Michael Searle confirmed the issue was discussed in the dressing room, suggesting he hopes the NRL doesn't get to the stage of soccer when it comes to diving for penalties.
"You'd like to think it won't ever get to the stage that soccer's got to, and I must say I can't see that happening,'' Searle said. "But it's probably a good thing that some of the boys reserve the right to hand out a spray if they feel like a player is deliberately lying down.''
While the Dragons were awarded a highly contentious win over the Bulldogs in round 10 because of a penalty won by Soward, coach Bennett didn't see the funny side of "diving'' a couple of years ago when at the Broncos.
In July 2007, Bennett launched a stinging attack on Parramatta fullback Jarryd Hayne, accusing him of feigning injury. Bennett said at the time: "They just should be cited for bringing the game into disrepute. Add another one to the list and have the guy cited next week.
"Put him out of the game for a while and you will cut the rot out pretty quickly. But if they get away with it they are going to do it next week and the week after until the league does something about it.''
