Horror Newcastle start bailed out by twin Cowboys sin bins

The Knights had one of the worst starts you’re likely to see on an NRL field this year but the Magic Round fury hasn’t calmed for fans.

Andrew Johns has panned the crackdown.

Round 11 of the NRL season is here and if the Cowboys and Knights clash is anything to go by, the Magic Round crackdown is here to stay.

The Cowboys claimed a dominant 36-20 win but the side went to the break locked at 16-all despite flying out to a 16-0 lead.

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Last week, current and former players, fans, commentators and anyone else around the league were left stunned as 14 players were sin binned and another three were sent off in a wild crackdown on foul play.

While not every sin bin was for foul play, it was a jarring experience for fans and players who were only informed of the move in the days before Magic Round with little chance for adjustment.

But a week on and some fans still aren’t used to it.

The North Queensland Cowboys raced out to a 16-0 lead with Valentine Holmes wreaking havoc down the Knights’ left hand side.

“I don’t know what we just saw. It’s been incredible what we’ve seen in the first 40 minutes,” Michael Ennis said at halftime on Fox League. “The right side of the Newcastle was as bad as any edge I’ve seen any team in the opening 20 minutes of this game. They were getting torn to pieces on both edges but the right edge was just disgraceful.”

The Taumalolo hit on Tyson Frizell.

But sin bins have again changed the game with Jason Taumalolo and Lachlan Burr sin binned within four minutes of each other.

Braith Anasta said the sin bins were “rightfully so” and “changed the complexion of the game”.

Anasta said: “It shows how important abiding by the rules and preparing for the games this week is because of how costly (it is).”

Taumalolo hit Tyson Frizell with a stiff arm over the top, leaving the Knights second rower bleeding from the nose in the 26th minute.

It was the first time in his 201 game career that Taumalolo was sin binned.

Four minutes later, Burr hit Jayden Brailey high with Fox League’s Yvonne Sampson asking if he was “a slow learner” after being sin binned for a controversial hit last week against the Roosters’ James Tedesco.

Ennis said: “I felt for him, you could see the look on his face.”

But rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns went further, feeling despondent after the Burr hit was punished with a sin bin.

“He just puts an arm out, a loose arm – honestly, it wouldn’t bruise a grape,” he said on Channel 9.

“It just takes the whole contest out of the game. Watching the game, the contest and how the game is played now – I just feel deflated watching it.

“If it’s going to continue – if someone loses an Origin series or loses a grand final over this. I don’t know what we want the game to be.

“It’s a brutal game – I just don’t know. I’m sitting here just scratching my head.

“...They can trot out whatever spin and BS they want at the NRL.”

The Lachlan Burr high shot.

While Andrew came out strongly, his brother Matthew was more circumspect about the change the NRL needed to have.

On his Fox League show The Late Show with Matty Johns, he said the rules are important but that the rules can be adjusted.

“I think the intention and the principle of the rule is correct, but I think it needs a bit of tweaking,” Matthew said.

“You could see the referee the second time — the Taumalolo one was fair enough — but Lachlan Burr was wrongfooted, but you can see Ashley Klein go ‘oh geez, I’ve got to do this”.

Gorden Tallis said the “NRL had drawn a line in the sand” even though it “took the oxygen out of the round” last week.

Johns backed the five-minute sin bin to come into the game.

“If Taumalolo goes for 10, I can live with that,” he said. “Lachlan Burr was wrongfooted, is it a penalty? I don’t think it’s worthy of 10 in the bin.”

But he also put it in context when meeting old players from yesteryear at reunions “and see what that game did to them”.

While the NRL has been at pains this week to explain the logic behind the foul play crackdown in order to protect players after the fan backlash last week, it hasn’t all been taken on board by fans.

So any hit above the shoulders is a bin? Cool. I’ll expect every single one to be a bin all weekend then #NRLCowboysKnights

— Luke McGarry (@LukeMcGarry7) May 20, 2021

Not hit Frizell in the 👃

— Bernie Coen (@berniecoen) May 20, 2021

We need the 5 min sin bin. In the space of 6 mins the game was turned on its head.

— Jamie Soward (@sowwowofficial6) May 20, 2021

The Cowboys are in the top eight.

Before the match, NRL great Gorden Tallis told Fox League that he was shocked by last week but had begun to understand why the sudden moves by the game.

“I thought it as a lack of communication because I was sitting there, you say I’m a salesman and Peter V’landys is our boss and we’ve got to sell the game and talk to the fans and we didn’t get the memo of what was happening, so we were shocked with what they were trying to achieve,” Tallis said.

“After watching all the commentary through the week, once he explained it, I understood it better. But that should have been explained to our fans, the players and the coaches so it’s not such a shock to the system.

“I think the game is lacking communication from the top end down. I think the players need to be told what’s happening, the fans and everybody just so we can get on the same page.”

Originally published as Horror Newcastle start bailed out by twin Cowboys sin bins