NRL 2020: Official axed over Jaxson Paulo try, Jaydn Su’A charged
NRL’s head of football Graham Annesley has acted swiftly after one of the worst officiating blunders of the season, while the match review committee has given its verdict on the Jaydn Su’A hit.
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Touch judge Phil Henderson has been immediately axed for failing to spot Jaxson Paulo’s clear no try during Canterbury’s shock win against South Sydney on Thursday night.
Henderson was originally named to patrol the sidelines for the Roosters and Sharks clash on Saturday night but was dumped for making the wrong call.
Replays clearly showed Paulo’s foot had slid his foot in the touch in goal a split-second before grounding the ball, meaning the try should have been denied.
NRL’s head of football Graham Annesley said Henderson should have told referee Ashley Klein to refer the decision to the bunker.
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“Replays immediately after the incident clearly showed the decision to award a try was incorrect,” Annesley said. “The touch judge in question indicated to the referee he was happy with the sideline, and as a result the referee awarded the try without referral to the bunker.
“The decision by the touch judge not to request a referral was obviously an error of judgment. While I have always been clear that match officials should back themselves to make decisions where they believe there is no doubt, this decision was simply too close to call without the assistance of technology.”
Chris Butler will replace Henderson on Saturday night.
Meanwhile, South Sydney back-rower Jaydn Su’A will be free to play finals football after accepting a one game ban for his high tackle which left Lachlan Lewis stumbling.
Su’A was whacked with a grade two careless high tackle charge. The early guilty plea means he will miss the final regular season match against the Roosters on Friday but is free to play in South Sydney’s opening finals game – likely to be against the Knights in Newcastle. He was sin-binned for the high shot while Lewis was unable to return because of concussion.
Premiership winning coach Phil Gould was critical of the decision.
“Su’A executed a completely legitimate/legal tackling action,” Gould tweeted. “Nothing careless. Nothing reckless. No swinging arms or dangerous behaviour. No intent to do anything other than tackle opponent. First point of contact is ball/ball carrying arm.
“If Lewis is balanced when bracing for the inevitable contact, nothing goes wrong with this collision. However, as Lewis braces for collision, he slows and loses traction with (his) feet.
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As a result he dips, losing resistance with (the) top half of body. He can’t brace himself as normal.
“Instead Lewis suddenly has weak resistance to impact with upper half of (his) body. “Whiplash action results. Su’A is well into his tackle technique when this occurs. No time, or room for adjustment. It’s unfortunate, but nevertheless, an accident.”
Canterbury centre Tim Lafai has played his last game of the year after also being hit with a grade two careless high tackle charge. His tackle was on Su’A and comes with a 100 base penalty.
WORST REF BLUNDER OF THE SEASON?
With the finals just around the corner, the last thing the NRL needs is another officiating crisis.
But someone must be held accountable for the baffling decision to award Paulo’s first half try.
The rookie Rabbitoh plunged over in the corner after some sharp work by Walker in the lead-up.
Touch judge Phil Henderson signed off on the grounding and referee Klein did not hesitate to award the four-pointer - only for replays to clearly show Paulo’s leg hitting the touch in-goal line before he scored. Luckily, it did not decide the final result.
After that monumental stuff up Ashley Klein will be in charge of the bunker for TWO games this weekend. pic.twitter.com/6YmMLtjtME
— BUZZ ROTHFIELD (@BuzzRothfield) September 17, 2020
Never, ever, ever blow up about tries/no tries being sent to the bunker in the future.#NRLSouthsBulldogs @FOXNRL pic.twitter.com/HStwask8Rt
— Warren Smith (@WarrenSmithFOX) September 17, 2020
SCRATCHY SOUTHS HIT THE SKIDS
For all of the Bulldogs effort and all of the Rabbitohs shortcomings, the Bunnies were still well-positioned to win this heading into the final quarter.
Alex Johnston’s try in the 49th minute narrowed the gap to 20-16. Half an hour should be more than enough time for the likes of Walker, Damien Cook, Adam Reynolds and Cam Murray to conjure at least one four-pointer, let alone against the bottom-placed side.
Instead, the Rabbitohs could not find the killer blow and bore little resemblance to a team with serious finals aspirations.
“They took their chances - I think we got across the line three times and lost the ball,” Bennett said.
“We’ve got the Roosters next week and we won’t be a match for them if we played like we did tonight.
“That’s our challenge, is to get ourselves back to somewhere we know we can play at and not dish up what we dished up tonight.”
The Rabbitohs could also be without backrower Jaydn Su’A, who was controversially sin-binned for a high shot on Bulldogs halfback Lachlan Lewis and is likely facing suspension.
HOT DOGS
Canterbury have had a miserable year however you slice it.
But nobody can say they’ve stopped trying, even as the losses mounted and the scorelines piled up and it looked like this dreadful season would never end. Three wins might not be much, but it’s a hell of a lot better than two.
Tim Lafai got things started when Jayden Okunbor tapped back a Lachlan Lewis kick, then Reimis Smith plunged over off a scrum.
When Raymond Faitala-Mariner crossed moments later after another tap back, the Bulldogs led 20-0 and an upset was in the air.
Captain Josh Jackson, in his 200th NRL game, played with all the effort and hustle that has long been his trademark and pulled off two remarkable try-saving tackles on Murray.
“That was seven weeks in the making,” said interim coach Steve Georgallis.
“I’m just so proud of the 17 players. We just kept on turning up in defense, Souths chased us in the second-half, possession swung and momentum swung but they just kept turning up for each other.
“That’s something we talked about all week - don’t leave the game with any regrets.”
Second efforts were the order of the day, with none better than Will Hopoate’s incredible strip on Jed Cartwright when the Rabbitohs centre looked certain to score in the final ten minutes.
Rookie five-eighth Jake Averillo battled through a painful quad injury to battle through the 80 minutes and Georgallis was full of praise for his rookie pivot.
“He pulled his quad muscle goalkicking yesterday and had treatment last night and this morning. You could see he wasn’t striding out,” Georgallis said.
“To his credit, he said to me at halftime ‘mate, I’ll go the rest of the second half, don’t take me off’”.
“They’ve had that fight for the majority of the year.