The opening half of the Titans' clash with the Warriors on Friday night was packed with controversy, so much so that Gold Coast prop Moeaki Fotuaika became the second player in two nights to be sent off.
Just one night after Roosters front-rower Nathan Brown was sent off by referee Ashley Klein for a brutal hit on Manly's Ben Trbojevic, Fotuaika copped the same punishment from Ben Cummins after flooring Warriors fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad.
Earlier in the game at Gold Coast's Cbus Super Stadium, eventually won by the New Zealand outfit 28-18, Titans hooker Chris Randall avoided being marched from the field despite making heavy contact with the head of Warriors winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak.
READ MORE: Sacked NRL coach snubs big-money move to join rival
READ MORE: World Cup coach faces sexual misconduct complaint
READ MORE: Lyon leaves Sydney in BBL signing stunner
Cummins opted against sending him off or sin-binning him and instead only placed him on report and penalised the Titans.
Another controversial moment came when David Fifita and Marata Niukore got in a minor scuffle at the ruck.
Niukore slapped Fifita in the face — it's got to be said, very lightly — and Cummins dumped the Warriors enforcer in the sin bin.
Yet Fifita had slapped Niukore in the face first.
Former State of Origin hooker Michael Ennis weighed in on the dramatic first half during Fox League's half-time coverage.
Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on 9Now
"The was no other option, there was no other option than to send him from the field," Ennis said of the Fotuaika send-off.
"I'm happy with that decision from Ben Cummins.
"Randall's had to be a sin-bin; it was direct contact to the head. Had to be a sin-bin.
"It was carnage, absolute carnage at this point. Ben Cummins was under duress. It was coming from everywhere. Tensions were really high."
Titans coach Jim Lenihan believes the send-off was too harsh.
"I think if you compare the one from last night I don't think it was the same sort of thing," Lenihan said.
"I don't think Mo's coming out of the ground or coming recklessly out of the ground. I think Mo's pretty much bracing and made a bit of contact to the head. Maybe 10 minutes was sufficient. I don't know if it justifies at that point to probably ruin the game, but it put us under a whole lot of pressure and pretty much the game was over at that point."
Broncos legend Corey Parker blasted the decision to send Niukore to the sin bin.
"Ridiculous … Fifita was the instigator here, Marata just goes back in at marker. Fifita absolutely initiates contact, pushes him in the face, Marata Niukore with a lazy little 'How ya goin'?' back and he gets 10 (minutes) on the back of that," Parker said.
"I mean, if Fifita's able to do that with ball in hand and stay on the field — it's ridiculous.
"And for the fans at home who sit and watch and pay their money — they've got no idea like we do. That was ridiculous to put Marata in the bin for that."
Instead of criticising the referee for the decision, Warriors coach Andrew Webster put the blame on his side but only before laughing at the question. Webster has repeatedly avoided questions this season around referee decisions.
"I don't know, yeah it's hard though, I hate these ones," he laughed.
"I'm not going to go there.
"It was just an incident where I thought we were poorly disciplined to be honest, we've got to stick up for ourselves all the time and that's important but we've got to do it in the right way … we know that, no one's making excuses in there, we struggled in a couple of those moments."
For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.