Outrage as NRL drops ball in ‘sickening’ moment

NRL greats have turned the heat up on the league and the Cowboys after no action was taken when a star player collapsed.

Jason Taumalolo looked to have been knocked out.

The NRL and the Cowboys are under fire for failing to take action following the ugly moment when star forward Jason Taumalolo suffered a serious head knock.

Despite TV commentators saying it was certain that the head clash would be reviewed by the league’s independent HIA doctor, Taumalolo was not taken from the field.

The 28-year-old collapsed after a head collision with Titans forward Isaac Liu during the second half of the Cowboys 30-4 win on Saturday night at Queensland Country Bank Stadium in Townsville.

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Fox League commentator and former Queensland State of Origin star Corey Parker saw Taumalolo became “dazed” even before seeing video replays.

The video showed Taumalolo dropped the ball and fell forward with a blank expression on his face after coming off worse from the contact than Liu.

Jason Taumalolo looked to have been knocked out.

“He looked like he might have got stunned there Taumalolo,” Parker said.

“He looks a little bit dazed the big fella. Isaac Liu comes across and it looked like a head clash. Yeah straight on the button.”

He went on to say: “That will be the end of him (for the game). Yeah, you can see it in his eyes straight away. There’s no doubt in the next set of six that Jason Taumalolo will have to leave the field, so he might as well just go now.”

Fox League commentator Brenton Speed said it was a “sickening head clash”.

“It looked like he copped a big right cross,” Speed said.

“Taumalolo will be asked to leave the field shortly. This is a sickening head clash.”

Taumalolo went on to play the rest of the game — a full 15 minutes on the field following the incident.

Jason Taumalolo finished the game without an HIA.

“I don’t know how Taumalolo is still out on the field,” Parker said.

“We all saw the vision. We saw the eyeballs of Taumalolo who had come up with an error off the back of it.

“And he is still out on the field.”

Brent Tate agreed the decision to allow Taumalolo to continue was ridiculous.

“I think we are the only ones in the whole stadium that didn’t obviously know that he was knocked out,” Tate said.

“I’m with you Corey. It is almost farcical.

“He was knocked out straight away. You could see his eyes and he dropped the ball. It is laughable.”

Taumalolo was asked about the incident and how his head was post game.

“It’s fine, it was a bit of a love tap and I flinched but got back to my feet so no problem,” Taumalolo said.

Originally published as Outrage as NRL drops ball in ‘sickening’ moment