{"id":698853,"date":"2026-05-27T23:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/698853\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T23:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:45:10","slug":"kalyn-ponga-in-shock-suspension-twist-as-nsw-state-of-origin-player-rubbed-out-for-two-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/698853\/","title":{"rendered":"Kalyn Ponga in shock suspension twist as NSW State of Origin player rubbed out for two games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kalyn Ponga<\/a> has sensationally avoided a suspension due to a quirk in the NRL<\/a> rules despite being charged with a Grade 2 shoulder charge that saw him sent off in State of Origin 1<\/a>. The Queensland fullback was given his marching orders after collecting NSW winger Tolu Koula in the head with his shoulder.<\/p>\n

Koula later failed a head injury assessment (HIA), meaning he\u2019ll be stood from playing for the next 11 days. Cruelly, it means he\u2019ll miss the next two games for Manly – in two days\u2019 time against Cronulla and eight days against Souths.<\/p>\n

\"Kalyn<\/p>\n

Kalyn Ponga has dodged a suspension after being sent-off in State of Origin 1. Image: Channel 9\/Getty<\/p>\n

But despite the fact Koula is now out for two games, Ponga avoided a suspension from the match review committee on Wednesday night. The NRL changed the rules in recent years to give greater leniency to incidents that occur in rep games – Origin and Test matches.<\/p>\n

Only a Grade 3 charge or above triggers a suspension from an incident that occurred in State of Origin. Ponga was slapped with a Grade 2 charge on Wednesday night, which equates to a fine of 23 per cent of his match fee (roughly $6900).<\/p>\n

If the incident had occurred in a regular NRL game, Ponga would be looking at a two-game suspension. Had he been hit with a Grade 3 charge on Wednesday night he would face a three-game ban and miss State of Origin 2.<\/p>\n

Kalyn Ponga dejected after State of Origin loss<\/p>\n

Despite dodging a ban, Ponga admitted after the game he felt like he let his team down. Queensland were up 20-6 when he was sent off, but NSW came home to win 22-20 with an extra player for the last 22 minutes.<\/p>\n

“I’m not proud of it,” Ponga said. “The boys had to work a lot harder because of me being off the field so that is something I am not proud of. But shit happens.<\/p>\n

“At the end of day it was my action that forced the boys to work extra hard. So there is a level of responsibility there. For it to come down to the last minute and a half, it’s pretty heartbreaking. I was the reason it happened.”<\/p>\n

\"Tolutau<\/p>\n

Tolutau Koula will miss the next two NRL games for Manly.<\/p>\n

(Darrian Traynor)<\/p>\n

Queensland coach Billy Slater refused to weigh in on whether he agreed with the send-off. “We can argue all we want, I haven’t got any problems with it,” he said. “(Kalyn)’s OK, he feels he’s let his team down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey happen at the back. I played that position, I know how it is. Spur of the moment, it was wet out there. Those things happen. I thought it was a courageous effort (from the team). I’m heartbroken for them.”<\/p>\n

Queensland stars Cameron Munster and Pat Carrigan both said they felt the send-off was harsh. Meanwhile, Queensland hooker Harry Grant was also charged by the match review committee for a Grade 1 careless high tackle on Ethan Strange and fined seven per cent of his match fee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kalyn Ponga has sensationally avoided a suspension due to a quirk in the NRL rules despite being charged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,3762,44,158,701,6405,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-698853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-kalyn-ponga","tag-news","tag-nrl","tag-queensland","tag-state-of-origin","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698853","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=698853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}