NRL referees’ boss Robert Finch is fuming the wrong player got sin binned in Parramatta’s 22-8 win over South Sydney on Sunday, saying the decision was unacceptable.
In the 64th minute, referee Ben Cummins sent Eels captain Nathan Cayless from the field following an already hefty penalty count by both sides and stern warnings by officials.
Cayless was alleged to have stripped Rabbitohs five-eighth John Sutton of the ball however Finch said Daniel Mortimer was quite blatantly the player guilty of the strip.
“What I’m not happy with is the fact that quite clearly they got the wrong player,” Finch said.
“I’m very disappointed they put the wrong bloke in the bin. That’s not acceptable.
“I’m not happy with that at all, they shouldn’t be doing that.”
He said a decision on whether Cummins will be dropped for round seven will be made on Tuesday.
After 17 penalties, referees Cummins and Gerard Sutton warned both captains, they were prepared to resort to the sin bin if either side continued with their indiscretions.
Although he wasn’t pleased with the wrong player being binned, he supported the referees’ decision to begin sending players off the field for repeated infringements.
“Both captains were spoken to on a number of occasions about the number of penalties and the response from their team was to keep breaching,” he said.
“The referees are not going to keep going down the path (of awarding penalties).
“We will not walk away from the fact that sides who repeatedly infringe over the 80 minutes after they were spoken to will get sin-binned.”
Finch said when players are warned, referees expect them to respond by “knuckling down, not breaching immediately after that”.
Shortly after Cayless was sin binned, Cummins sent Rabbitohs centre Beau Champion for a 10 minute stint off the field over a high tackle on Jarryd Hayne.
Finch said the penalty was warranted as Hayne had been hit in the head and Champion was binned, like Cayless, for his side’s repeated penalties.
He did admit he was not happy with how that sin binning was also handled by the referees.
“I didn’t like the way they went about it, it took for too long,” he said.
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