Despite being on the receiving end of a head-high tackle placed on report, Canberra Raiders second rower Corey Harawira-Naera says it did not deserve a send off.
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The 26-year-old was forced to sit out for about 15 minutes of the Raiders' win over the Brisbane Broncos on Saturday night, after he took a head hit and was forced off the Canberra Stadium field in the 60th minute to undergo a head injury assessment.
In the wake of the NRL's crackdown on head-high tackles, Broncos rookie Kobe Hetherington was immediately sent off for the tackle, despite it being a result of halfback Tyson Gamble ankle tapping Harawira-Naera before it.
The 22-year-old hooker received a $1500 fine but the NRL tribunal decided his early guilty plea meant he would not miss any games.
Some choice words were sent Harawira-Naera's way when he went down in the 59th minute after the head high tackle.
"He gave me a bit of a spray when I was on the ground so I wasn't happy. I feel for him, I don't think he deserved it, I think maybe 10 minutes, if that and it was an accident but after he sprayed me I was a bit off him," he said with a grin.
"I thought it was unlucky. I got ankle tapped and I was falling and he hit me high but it was sort of the same as what happened to [Josh] Papalii a few weeks ago where they're just sort of falling into the tackle and the shoulder makes direct contact with the head.
"That's the rule now and you can't do it, it really doesn't matter how or where."
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Harawira-Naera returned to the field for the last five minutes of the match but said after the knock he was a little bit worried he may not get back on.
Earlier in the piece, he had scored the side's second try. The Raiders looked back to their old ways on Saturday, and will look to take their form into their next match against the St George-Illawarra Dragons.
Reflecting on the difference last week, compared to previous rounds, Harawira-Naera said one thing was clear.
"We got the job done and everyone played well, it was kind of one of those games where you couldn't really single anyone out for having a bad game, everyone contributed towards the win which ... it's been a long time since that's happened ... where everyone's had above six, seven out of 10 games," he said.
"So it's good to get back in the winning circle and the way we did it was probably another bonus as well."
He identified the biggest difference was the side did not fall away with their attack during the second half, as they had done in previous matches.
"Normally we'd push a few offloads and then we give them cheap field position and then we can't defend our line but I thought our line defence and just being patient and holding the ball," he said.
"At the end of it, they couldn't really handle us. It's a long time since we've played like that as a team. It's giving us a lot of confidence that we haven't lost it. If we can all have six, seven, eight plus out of 10 games, we'll win most of our games."
Raiders squad to take on St George-Illawarra Dragons:
1. Bailey Simonsson
2. Semi Valemei
3. Sebastian Kris
4. Matt Timoko
5. Jordan Rapana
6. Jack Wighton
7. Sam Williams
8. Josh Papalii
9. Josh Hodgson
10. Dunamis Lui
11. Corey Harawira-Naera
12. Elliott Whitehead (C)
13. Ryan Sutton
Substitutes:
14. Tom Starling
15. Emre Guler
16. Sia Soliola
17. Joe Tapine
18. Xavier Savage
19. Hudson Young
20. Matt Frawley
21. Ryan James
Isobel Cootes
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
