{"id":700530,"date":"2026-05-28T18:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T18:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/700530\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T18:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T18:20:12","slug":"state-of-origin-referee-ashley-kleins-decision-to-send-off-kalyn-ponga-backed-by-nrl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/700530\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Origin referee Ashley Klein&#8217;s decision to send off Kalyn Ponga backed by NRL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The NRL has backed State of Origin referee Ashley Klein, saying his decision to send off Queensland fullback Kalyn Ponga was the correct call.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Klein sent Ponga from the field during the second half of Origin I in Sydney on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Ponga&#8217;s tackle on NSW winger Tolu Koula was judged as a shoulder charge with direct contact to the head.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The controversy around the decision was further inflamed when the match review committee charge sheet only cited Ponga with a grade-two shoulder charge, allowing him to escape with a fine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">A grade-three shoulder charge would have ruled Ponga out of Origin II with a three-week ban.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">But the NRL supported the match-altering call by Klein, which allowed the Blues to turn a 20-6 deficit into a 22-20 victory.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-05-27\/kalyn-ponga-send-off-state-of-origin-i-reaction\/106730106\" data-component=\"FullBleedLink\" class=\"RelatedCard_link__rsgR9 FullBleedLink_root__lTw_U interactive_focusContext__yRhc_ interactive_defaults__AKxUU FullBleedLink_showVisited__g3Xvz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Controversy over Ponga dismissal<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP RelatedCard_synopsis__cFwMW Typography_sizeMobile14__u7TGe Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Kalyn Ponga is left feeling responsible for Queensland&#8217;s Origin I collapse as the decision to send him off leaves several greats shocked.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;The NRL supports Ashley Klein&#8217;s decision to send off Kalyn Ponga during State of Origin Game One,&#8221; NRL GM of elite competitions Graham Annesley said in a statement on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;This incident involved clear and forceful shoulder-to-head and head-to head contact with no mitigating factors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;Player safety is extremely important and the game will make no apology for taking strong action on foul play.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">According to the NRL, bunker official Chris Butler told Klein it was &#8220;at least a sin-bin&#8221; but under the laws of the game the match referee had the final say on foul play.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Annesley explained a change to the judiciary code in 2022 meant incidents during representative matches were treated differently.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">This is why Ponga avoided a two-match ban, which is the outcome for a grade-two charge in a regular NRL match.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;The judiciary reforms are designed to directly penalise the player responsible for foul play during State of Origin, rather than their NRL club,&#8221; Annesley said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NRL has backed State of Origin referee Ashley Klein, saying his decision to send off Queensland fullback&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[54654,64,63,3925,3762,23423,158,2733,192994,286886,701,13385,24097,340255,341093,85,6405,670],"class_list":["post-700530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ashley-klein","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blues","tag-kalyn-ponga","tag-maroons","tag-nrl","tag-nsw","tag-nsw-blues","tag-origin-i","tag-queensland","tag-queensland-maroons","tag-referee","tag-send-off","tag-sent-off","tag-sports","tag-state-of-origin","tag-sydney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700530","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=700530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}