{"id":600494,"date":"2026-04-11T17:57:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T17:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/600494\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T17:57:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T17:57:13","slug":"gone-too-far-robinson-warns-of-disruptor-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/600494\/","title":{"rendered":"Gone too far: Robinson warns of disruptor drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trent Robinson has warned interpretation of the NRL’s disruptor rule has gone too far after his Sydney Roosters overcame a contentious call in their 34-22 win over Cronulla.<\/p>\n

After they trailed 16-0 inside 16 minutes in Perth, the Roosters roared back to life with Daly Cherry-Evans scoring a double and Mark Nawaqanitawase at his athletic best.<\/p>\n

But the game was overshadowed by a bizarre disruptor call in the first half.<\/p>\n

Robert Toia was denied a try when the bunker ruled he contacted Sam Stonestreet’s arm in a contest for a bomb where the Sharks winger spilled the ball.<\/p>\n

The Sharks then went downfield and Tom Hazelton crossed to make it 22-6.<\/p>\n

The disruptor rule has been one of the league’s biggest talking points in recent weeks, with Brisbane also denied a try against North Queensland on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Asked if he understood the rule anymore, Robinson responded: “I did.<\/p>\n

“The direction they were heading was right. There was too much disturbing of fullbacks, there were people who weren’t competing,” he continued.<\/p>\n

“That’s gone too far. That was a clear example of two guys in a contest, two guys are looking at a ball. That’s an over-compensation.<\/p>\n

“If someone tries to defend that, we’re headed in the wrong direction. That’s the most extreme. I know there was a bit last night in the Brisbane game.<\/p>\n

“But I don’t think anyone can argue that was a disruptor.”<\/p>\n

\"Toia\"<\/p>\n

Robert Toia (r) was denied a try by a controversial ruling. (Richard Wainwright\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Roosters captain James Tedesco also claimed the bunker was slowing replays “down to the millisecond”.<\/p>\n

The NRL has previously been able to explain what indicators they are using for contentious decisions through head of football Graham Annesley’s weekly briefings.<\/p>\n

However those were cancelled by the NRL at the start of last season, with the league’s head of football now effectively stopped from publicly explaining decisions.<\/p>\n

“I’m a bit lost now. Theirs was a tough one in the first half,” Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon said.<\/p>\n

“It’s like anything they shine a light on it and it comes to the forefront of everyone’s mind, it keeps happening. Then it goes away and something else comes in.”<\/p>\n

That ruling was only the start of the Roosters’ first-half issues, as they made seven errors in the opening 25 minutes and trailed 16-0.<\/p>\n

But they rebounded when Sam Walker engineered a break down the left and scored from it, before his bomb for Daniel Tupou on halftime made it 22-12.<\/p>\n

Cherry-Evans then claimed his 100th NRL try when he put up a bomb and Nawaqanitawase batted back into his hands, reducing the margin to four.<\/p>\n

And after Tupou crossed to level the scores, Nawaqanitawase and Cherry-Evans again combined when the Roosters winger put on a flick pass for his five-eighth.<\/p>\n

Victor Radley scored late in his return match – after also digging into the line and passing in the lead up to Tupou’s match-levelling try – in his early return from a club-imposed 10-game ban.<\/p>\n

The one positive for Cronulla was Blayke Brailey inching closer to the NSW No.9 jersey, outshining incumbent Reece Robson at dummy-half.<\/p>\n

\"bb\"<\/p>\n

Blayke Brailey is staking a strong NSW State of Origin claim. (Mark Evans\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Brailey put Jesse Colquhoun, Braydon Trindall and Hazelton through gaping holes for first-half tries.<\/p>\n

“He’s definitely played well again today, I thought he sparked us and defended well,” Fitzgibbon said.<\/p>\n

“He’s an incredible player so I would love to see him get a shot.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trent Robinson has warned interpretation of the NRL’s disruptor rule has gone too far after his Sydney Roosters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,4738,4581,292226,78628,44,158,4542,1080,99325,4737],"class_list":{"0":"post-600494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-craig-fitzgibbon","11":"tag-daniel-tupou","12":"tag-disruptor","13":"tag-mark-nawaqanitawase","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-nrl","16":"tag-robert-toia","17":"tag-sydney-roosters","18":"tag-tom-hazelton","19":"tag-trent-robinson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600494","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=600494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}