'Normally a suspension': Loophole comes to light as Jarome Luai learns punishment

Yahoo

6 hours ago

Jarome Luai and Zac Lomax have both escaped with fines after ugly incidents in State of Origin 2 - and it's all because of a unique loophole in the NRL system. Luai and Lomax were both put on report in the first half of NSW's 26-24 loss to Queensland on Wednesday night.
Luai grabbed the face of Maroons forward Reuben Cotter in what appeared very close to an eye-gouge, while Lomax lashed out and elbowed Trent Loiero in the head after a tackle. Luai was cleared of an eye-gouge by the NRL match review committee, and was slugged with a $3900 fine rather than a suspension.
The NSW five-eighth was hit with a grade-two contrary conduct charge for unnecessary contact with an opponent's face. But under the NRL's punishment system, incidents that occur in Origin and finals games carry lighter sanctions.
If the Luai incident had occurred in an NRL game, he'd normally be hit with a suspension. But because it happened in State of Origin, it's only a fine. The system was brought in so players' clubs aren't unfairly affected by their actions in representative games. It also prevents players being banned from finals games for incidents that aren't overly serious.
Luai's $3900 fine is 13 per cent of his $30,000 match payment. Lomax was charged with grade-one dangerous contact and fined $21000 (seven per cent of his match payment).
Luai's return to the Origin arena was overshadowed by the incident with Cotter. Queensland fullback Kalyn Ponga made a raking action to sideline officials after witnessing Luai's actions, and he appeared very lucky to escape a suspension.
Andrew Johns said "it looked bad" in commentary, while NSW coach Laurie Daley defended the incident after the match. "I thought it was just a facial," Daley said. "We saw a fair few of them in Game 1 too."
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The incidents with Luai and Lomax were part of a historic run of nine-straight penalties that Queensland received to start the game. The penalty count was 8-0 at half-time, and when the Maroons received their ninth it was the first time that had ever occurred in a State of Origin game.
Referee Ashley Klein copped plenty of backlash for his performance, although NSW did win the six-again count 6-2 and had 55 per cent possession. When asked about the 10-2 penalty count after the game, Daley momentarily remained silent before eventually responding: "I can't tell you what I really think".
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Blues captain Isaah Yeo admitted his team weren't disciplined enough and only had themselves to blame. "There were certainly a few we were shooting ourselves with and they're just penalties," Yeo said.
"Some others were 50-50s. Some nights you get them and some nights you don't. But what you can't do is just go drop the ball in the next set when you've got the ball. You would obviously like that to be a bit more even, but we were our own worst enemies at time."
Queensland surged out to a 26-6 lead at half-time, and NSW fell agonisingly short of their greatest comeback in Origin history with 18 unanswered points in the second half. Goal-kicking proved a massive difference, with Lomax only managing two conversions after the Blues outscored Queensland five tries to four.
with AAP