Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson has called on the NRL to practice what they preach after the game vowed to crack down on dangerous contact but failed to do so in their 31-18 loss to Parramatta.
Just two days ago, the NRL sent an email to clubs and officials encouraging the use of the sin bin and calling for minimal tolerance for avoidable contact with the head or neck.
The edict came out of concern for players suffering injuries from foul play, but acted as the most unfortunate prediction for Friday night’s controversy at Bankwest Stadium.
Eels stars Dylan Brown and Marata Niukore were both allowed to stay on the field despite two incidents of foul play that is now set to cost them time on the sidelines.
Brown’s sliding knees in a tackle sent Roosters half Drew Hutchison to hospital with broken ribs and a possible punctured lung, while Niukore was put on report for two shoulder charges within a minute.
Niukore’s hit on Sam Walker was late, before a shoulder charge on James Tedesco caught the Roosters skipper in the head – yet he still wasn’t sin-binned.
“(The NRL) came out sternly this week, and obviously not,” Robinson said.
(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
“Don’t send a letter and then not back it up.
“That incident (with Brown and Hutchison) wasn’t good enough from the Bunker and the referees.”
Brown’s dangerous contact with Hutchison happened just before halftime but, bizarrely, wasn’t placed on report until after the break.
Robinson fumed at the response time, with around 20 minutes passing between the incident and the decision to put Brown on report, which gave the Roosters a free interchange for foul play.
“There was no action whatsoever on the field,” Robinson said.
“We couldn’t even replace Drew with a free interchange because it wasn’t even on report at that stage.
“They looked at it ten times and they couldn’t find anything.
“And then, they had all of halftime and we run out on the field and they say, ‘It’s on report now’.
“They could have told us ten minutes in, so I could have changed them in the dressing room.
“But they told us as we were running out on the field, so I had to make a split-second change as soon as we ran out on the field. It’s ridiculous. That’s incompetent.”
Robinson said he will not ask the NRL for a ‘please explain’ because they should already be concerned about the flaws in the system.
“They don’t need me to ask the question, they should be looking at it themselves,” he said.
“How does it take 20 minutes to put someone on report, or to get that information to me when they had a lot of looks at it.
“They should have put it on report on field, really simply.
“Honestly, how many looks did they need?
“It’s just poor.”
© AAP
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