{"id":494718,"date":"2026-03-10T07:50:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T08:50:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=494718"},"modified":"2026-03-10T22:25:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T22:25:50","slug":"cowboys-star-earns-downgrade-after-ponga-shot-in-vegas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=494718","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys star earns downgrade after Ponga shot in Vegas"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Queensland<\/a> winger Braidon Burns has been cleared to play in round two despite a brutal high shot on Newcastle<\/a> captain Kalyn Ponga<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Burns was sin binned late in the game at Allegiant Stadium after he rushed out of the defensive line to put a shot on the superstar fullback.<\/p>\n

His shoulder connected with Ponga's head, flooring the Knights No.1 and resulting in referee Ashley Klein giving Burns his marching orders.<\/p>\n

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The NRL's match review committee hit Burns with a grade two careless high tackle, which would have resulted in a two-game ban with an early guilty plea.<\/p>\n

\"Kalyn<\/p>\n

However, the Cowboys opted to seek a downgrade at the NRL judiciary and were successful, freeing Burns to play. He will instead pay an $1800 fine.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Stemming from the Vegas season openers, Newcastle veteran Tyson Frizell escaped with a fine for his cannonball tackle on Thomas Mikaele, while Dragons livewire Christian Tuipulotu was also been fined for a shoulder charge in the second game.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe late sin bin proved costly for the Cowboys<\/a> in a 28-18 loss under the bright lights.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2026 NRL season live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Cowboys coach Todd Payten later complained about the fact Burns was binned while Frizell was allowed to remain on the field.<\/p>\n

"I can't disagree with the result," he said of the sin bin.<\/p>\n

"I'm really disappointed with how the Tom Mikaele incident was handled, considering Kalyn gets up and plays on but Tom is out for the next six weeks.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I'd just like some consistency, but we'll see what happens."\ufeff\ufeff<\/p>\n

The new-look Knights were dealt a blow in the first half when Fletcher Sharpe went off with a knee injury<\/a> and the scores locked at 12-12 at the break.<\/p>\n

Bradman Best and Dom Young scored back-to-back tries early in the second half to give the Knights the ascendancy, before Murray Taulagi kept it alive \ufeffin the 51st minute.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the match, Scott Drinkwater left the field for a brief period with a rib cartilage issue but was cleared to return after receiving pain relief in the sheds.<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Queensland winger Braidon Burns has been cleared to play in round two despite a brutal high shot on Newcastle captain Kalyn Ponga. Burns was […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":494720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494718"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=494718"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":494724,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494718\/revisions\/494724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/494720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=494718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=494718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=494718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}