NSW and North Queensland prop James Tamou is facing the prospect of missing State of Origin game two after he was placed on report for a dangerous tackle on Wests Tigers five-eighth Benji Marshall on Sunday.
Tamou has 32 carry over points from a high tackle charge from round five against Canberra and anything worse than a grade two would see him miss Origin two in Sydney on June 13.
About five minutes into the match, Tamou ran through on Marshall and hit the airborne playmaker in the legs after he kicked the ball in the Tigers 26-18 victory over the Cowboys at Campbelltown.
Marshall was fired up and threw a couple of punches at Tamou who stayed on his back.
“I’ve seen worse,” Tamou said of the tackle.
“I think they are trying to stamp that out in the game. I think they might try and set an example on that … we’ll see what happens.”
Tamou said he wasn’t thinking about missing Origin when he made the hit but it struck him soon after.
“It sort of did afterwards when Benji was just sort of over me and I thought I’ll just settle down a bit,” he said.
“I was just in the heat of the moment and just knew I had to put a bit of pressure on him.
“He didn’t say much … I put him in an awkward position and he had a bit of a right to blow up a bit … it stays on the field.”
Marshall and Tamou clashed again later in the match in a different way when about 10 minutes into the second half the Tigers New Zealand international fielded a kick in his own in-goal before weaving through the Cowboys defence.
He hit the halfway line and looked set to score before Tamou ran him down, forcing Marshall to pass to a teammate and the play broke down.
“He thought he was away and he looked back and saw this big man galloping after him. I think I was lucky that he slowed down a bit for me,” Tamou said.
Later in the second half Tamou broke the Tigers line showing amazing speed for a big man as he set off on a 55 metre run only to be cut down just short of the line by Tigers fullback Tim Moltzen.
“I wanted to think here comes a try but I think I sort of ran out of steam there and Moltzen was just too quick for me,” he said.
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