The New Zealand Warriors have rediscovered their kind after a 42-12 drubbing of the North Queensland Cowboys in Townsville.
However a weird sight noticed a participant from all sides sin binned with 20 minutes remaining that had gamers, followers and commentators all scratching their heads.
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The Warriors led 28-6 after they got a penalty simply 10m out after Cowboys halfback Chad Townsend tackled the Warriors’ Kurt Capewell with out the ball.
Simply earlier than, a Warriors bomb was defused by Kyle Feldt, earlier than the New Zealand defence bundled him into contact.
Townsend then got here throughout to indicate his displeasure with a little bit of push and shove.
Referee Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski then gave the perimeters a warning for the melee.
However on the following set, the Townsend sort out ignited the weird scenes.
Regardless of a penalty instantly being blown, the Cowboys half then dragged Capewell to the bottom, resulting in the Warriors gamers sharing their displeasure with Townsend on the bottom.
There was little or no to the incident however Warriors half Chanel Harris-Tavita picked up the ball and dropped it on Townsend’s head.
It was such an inconsequential second that Townsend didn’t react.
So it was a shock to everybody when Przeklasa-Adamski referred to as out Harris-Tavita and despatched him to the sin bin for “throwing the ball”.
Warren Smith stated: “No, come one. That’s not a sin bin.”
Greg Alexander was about to remark when the referee despatched Townsend, citing the actual fact he’d already spoken to him a number of instances.
“Did Chad even react to the ball on the pinnacle?” Alexander stated. “What did he do?
“You may’t be binned for that,” he stated of Harris-Tavita’s incident, including: “Why did we have to ship anybody to the sin bin for that, from what you simply witnessed?”
However there was mass confusion throughout the board for the state of affairs.
Queensland nice Brent Tate didn’t just like the look of it.
“I believe it’s embarrassing,” he stated. “There’s tempers going to flared, it’s a troublesome sport rugby league. I’m undecided about that one. That’s embarrassing.”
Within the post-match, Cowboys coach Todd Payten stated: “I’ve by no means seen one thing like that earlier than”.
However he additionally refused to make it an excuse.
Cowboys captain Tom Dearden stated he didn’t discover out why Townsend was despatched.
“I used to be a bit confused. I bought instructed it was one thing about escalating the state of affairs,” he stated.
“I don’t assume the officiating had any impact on our efficiency or how we turned up tonight.”
Warriors captain Tohu Harris stated he felt the referees had been making an attempt to make some extent of stopping “the niggly stuff”.
He added: “I’m simply glad it was on either side and didn’t change the sport a technique.”
However Followers had been equally baffled.
“Really the stupidest sin bin I’ve seen shortly. Wtf am I watching …” one fan stated.
One other added: “I believed the Harry Grant sin bin was dangerous. What we simply noticed was the two worst sin bins within the historical past of rugby league.”
One other was baffled, writing: “That may solely be a sin bin if it flared up after the ball was thrown. Horrendous. Then Chad’s can solely be for the palm to the face. Which once more, nothing occurred. Why?”
However the end result was already determined at that time.
Regardless of three of their six Origin stars backing up, the Cowboys had been utterly outplayed, snapping the aspect’s three-game successful streak.
For the Warriors, it extends their successful streak to a few matches, and together with the bye, have now moved up only one level out of the highest eight.
