{"id":526808,"date":"2026-03-08T13:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T13:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/526808\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T13:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T13:16:12","slug":"nrl-news-2026-david-fifita-and-tom-gilbert-sin-bins-tom-flegler-altercation-rabbitohs-vs-dolphins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/526808\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026 | David Fifita and Tom Gilbert sin bins; Tom Flegler altercation; Rabbitohs vs Dolphins"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Fifita<\/a> found himself in a spot of trouble late in the Rabbitohs’ round one 40-30 win over the Dolphins<\/a> after he was sent to the sin bin for a tussle with Tom Gilbert.<\/p>\n

Fifita’s temper was first tested with nine minutes to go when he had a clash with his former Broncos teammate.<\/p>\n

The Rabbitohs recruit held on to Flegler after a hit-up, trying to stop him from racing back to the line as the Dolphins prop attempted to hit his arm away.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Piastri explains ‘heartbreaking’ crash as home Grand Prix curse continues<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Bunnies ‘wizard’ throws intercept in mixed display<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Suaalii injury fears confirmed in crushing Waratahs blow<\/a><\/p>\n

Flegler then decided to wrestle him to the ground and slam him down. The Dolphins challenged but it was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

“Unnecessary force, yes,” Cameron Smith said on Nine.<\/p>\n

“But would that have hurt David Fifita? Absolutely not.”<\/p>\n

Smith also pointed out there was a “sneaky jumper punch” from Fifita to Flegler during the tackle. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

David Fifita’s sneaky jumper punch on Tom Flegler. \u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

During the next set, Fifita took the first hit-up and was wrestled to the ground again before Gilbert pushed him on the ground.<\/p>\n

Both sides then came together as Nine caller Peter Psaltis said “tempers are reaching boiling point”.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2026 NRL season live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Flegler and Latrell Mitchell<\/a> were captured in a fiery exchange while Peter Mamouzelos and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow also shared words.<\/p>\n

The replay showed Gilbert grabbing Fifita’s collar during the tackle as the Rabbitohs forward complained to the referee.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

David Fifita points to his collar.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

Gilbert was sin-binned by referee Peter Gough for “going on with it”, which he described as “completely unnecessary”.<\/p>\n

Post-match the Dolphins captain described it as a “brain fade”. <\/p>\n

“It was probably frustration in our performance, my individual performance, that’s all it was,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Probably not a good reflection of what we want to stand for … I probably agree with the referee’s decision in hindsight.”<\/p>\n

Fifita was also sin-binned for his role.<\/p>\n

“Why’s he gone?” Cameron Smith said on Nine.<\/p>\n

“What for? For a bit of push and shove?”<\/p>\n

Fifita blew a kiss to the Dolphins twice as he ran off before his side ran away as round one winners.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

David Fifita.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Fifita found himself in a spot of trouble late in the Rabbitohs’ round one 40-30 win over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-526808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}