South Sydney fullback Greg Inglis faces suspension after shoulder charge on Dragons lock Dean Young
STEVE Price said Dean Young was lucky to escape without a broken jaw after a Greg Inglis shoulder charge overshadowed the Rabbitohs' victory.
ST GEORGE Illawarra coach Steve Price said Dean Young was lucky to escape without a broken jaw after a Greg Inglis shoulder charge overshadowed the Rabbitohs' victory last night.
It was another shoulder charge gone wrong, with Young taken from the field in a neck brace after Inglis collected him in the head.
St George Illawarra captain Ben Hornby admitted fearing for Young's safety after a melee erupted with the veteran forward face down on the turf.
As the NRL considers outlawing the shoulder charge at the end of the season, Price was the latest coach to join the call for an emergency reserve when a player is taken out of the game due to foul play.
"He certainly got him, he's lucky he didn't break his jaw," Price said.
"We copped a guy in North Queensland who got sent off and got five weeks, so I'll have to leave that up to the match review committee.
"Also the actions of what happened after that we'll have to look at over the video."
The Dragons camp confirmed Young had not sustained any serious injury, but he was heavily concussed.
The NRL match review committee will decide whether Inglis has a case to answer tomorrow.
Hornby was fuming after the Dragons had to play with only 16 men for the final 47 minutes.
The other issue that had the Dragons seething was the melee as Young lay concussed, with players running in from everywhere.
"I thought it was fairly high. I'm not happy with it and I'll leave it at that," Hornby said.
Asked if he was concerned for Young's safety as the melee erupted around him, Hornby said: "Yeah, I was. I thought that was obviously very dangerous for where Deano was at the time.
"It was not a very good incident. I thought it had a fairly large impact (on the match). Dean's obviously one of our senior players and a very good player at that. It was a big loss for us. At the end of the day, it probably wasn't the difference between us winning and losing our execution.
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"But it was definitely not ideal for us."
Concussion and the welfare of players has already been a major focal point this season after judiciary cases involving Brisbane forward Ben Te'o, Bulldogs backrower Frank Pritchard and more recently Roosters forward Jared Waerea-Hargreaves for similar hits.
The Rabbitohs will have to contemplate life without Inglis leading into the finals.
His absence would be a huge loss given his influence since coach Michael Maguire shifted the Queensland Origin star to fullback.
Some would consider the South Sydney fullback lucky not to be sent off.
Fox Sports commentator Greg Alexander labelled it the biggest hit of the season.
What started out as Inglis bracing to execute a shoulder charge ended with Young being grabbed around the waist by Dylan Farrell and his head colliding at full speed with the Souths fullback.
During the melee, Dragons forward Trent Merrin and Souths' Luke Burgess came together as tempers flared.
When both teams were eventually separated, the Dragons trainer signalled for the stretcher and referee Gavin Morris called out Inglis and told him: "You've made contact with the head and shoulder, it's on report."
Rabbitohs coach Michael Maguire praised Inglis' performance, but said he couldn't comment on the tackle itself as it was now a matter for the match review panel.
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"I thought he was great," Maguire said.
"The way he saved tries and turned up on the right plays was outstanding. With Greggy, he just credits the team, but he does some great things for us."
SOUTH SYDNEY 36 (N Merritt 3 A Everingham G Inglis M King J Sutton tries A Reynolds 4 goals) bt ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA 14 (B Morris 2 B Creagh tries J Soward goal) at ANZ Stadium. Referee: Tony Archer, Gavin Morris. Crowd: 21,071.