Souths coach Wayne Bennett has labelled an eight-point try that went against Latrell Mitchell and the Rabbitohs “harsh”, and questioned whether the rare punishment was warranted. Souths got their second win of the NRL season with a 20-16 victory over Wests Tigers on Saturday night.
There was a flashpoint just before half-time when Heamasi Makasini pounced on a dropped ball and scored for the Tigers. Mitchell tried in vain to prevent the try, but actually ended up costing his team eight points rather than six.
Latrell Mitchell cost his team eight points rather than six. Image: Fox League
Mitchell lunged desperately at the end to try and knock the ball out of Makasini’s grasp. But the Rabbitohs centre ended up clocking Makasini in the face instead.
Because the act of foul play occurred in the act of scoring a try, the Tigers were awarded two shots at goal for an eight-point try. It’s an extremely rare punishment, but one the bunker official felt was appropriate.
Wayne Bennett disagrees with eight-point try
But speaking in his post-match press conference, Bennett disagreed and said he thought it was too harsh. Bennett pointed to an incident in which Jye Gray was hit in the head that he thought was worse, but didn’t result in a sin-binning.
“Well, the same thing happened with Jye Gray, he got hit in the head and we got a penalty for that,” Bennett said. “I mean Latrell didn’t deliberately play at his head. He played at the ball. He tried to get the ball and knock it out of his hands, so I thought it was harsh.
“But maybe I’m wrong. I don’t know what else he can do there. There was obviously a penalty there. But I think it’s added two points to it. That was my feeling on it. And if you look at those instances, you’ll see that Jye probably got hit harder than what Makasini did.”
Latrell Mitchell accidentally whacked Heamasi Makasini in the face. Image: Fox League
Bennett admitted he wasn’t pleased by the Rabbitohs’ performance, which came against a depleted Tigers side that lost Jarome Luai and Adam Doueihi to injuries during the game. Benji Marshall said they’re hopeful Douiehi only suffered hamstring ‘tightness’ rather than a strain or tear.
And the Tigers coach doesn’t think Luai suffered an ACL rupture, but is still expecting the five-eighth to miss weeks. “It doesn’t look good. He’s going to get scans obviously. Medical staff say he will be out for a little bit. Hopefully maybe four (weeks),” Marshall said.