Bedlam ensued in a fiery Easter Monday clash when the luckless Bailey Simonsson suffered a gruesome leg injury, resulting in the Eels star heading to hospital and a Tigers young gun sent to the bin.
The moment was described as a “flashpoint” of the Tigers’ 22-20 golden point win over Parramatta by Fox League’s Andrew Voss, although there would be several more.
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The Eels were trailing 18-10 with 20 minutes remaining when Mitch Moses put up an attacking kick, which Simonsson went up to contest.
Tigers winger Luke Lahilii also went up to contest and grabbed Simonsson in the air in the fight for the ball. Unfortunately, Simonsson landed extremely awkwardly and dislocated his ankle.
When replay of the incident was shown on the CommBank Stadium big screen, Eels skipper Mitch Moses, who was in a running battle with ref Peter Gough all afternoon, was left incensed when pleading for a penalty.
“His ankle broke,” Moses yelled at Gough.
“It’s not a deliberate action. Just take a breath,” Gough replied.
Luke Lahilii was given his marching orders for the tackle on Simonsson.Source: FOX SPORTS
While Simonsson was being treated by medical staff near the sideline, Eels centre Brian Kelly had some words with Lahilii, which started a small fracas around Simonsson.
“First and foremost, all thoughts with Bailey Simonsson,” Voss said.
“Cool heads are needed here. This is not required. A man is down receiving serious attention. Clear the play Tigers and Eels”
After that was broken up and players returned to their sides, Gough called out Lahilii and sent him to the sin bin.
“It’s foul play, he tackles him in the air, it’s a high risk injury as we can see. You’re in the bin,” Gough said as boos rung out around the ground.
“It’s high emotion here. The young fella has to go,” Voss said.
Simonsson was carted off and sent to hospital, as per Fox League sideline reporter Lara Pitt.
He was replaced by debutant Apa Twidle.
While the Tigers were down a man, Twidle scored two tries to level the score at 18.
Both teams would exchange penalty goals in the final 10 minutes to send the game to golden point before Tigers playmaker Jock Madden kicked another penalty goal from right in front to seal a famous win and move the Tigers to 2nd on the ladder.