Ponga came across in cover defence and saved a try with what appeared to be a shoulder charge on Will Warbrick<\/a>.<\/p>\nPonga led with his shoulder, just as he did in Origin 1 when he clashed with NSW star Tolu Koula.<\/p>\n
Unlike in Origin, Ponga didn\u2019t hit Warbrick in the head, but there was again no attempt to wrap his arm.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t picked up by Ashley Klein live nor by the Bunker, and play was allowed to carry on. <\/p>\n
Ponga wasn\u2019t placed on report but there was a belief he could be charged by the match review committee.<\/p>\n
However, on Saturday morning, the NRL confirmed he had not been charged, meaning he is free to play for the Maroons in under a fortnight\u2019s time.<\/p>\n
However, his tackling technique has been heavily criticised, with NRL great Greg Alexander declaring the Newcastle No. 1 has a problem with his technique.<\/p>\n
\u201cKalyn Ponga definitely has a technique problem with his tackling. It looked very similar to what happened last Wednesday night, but he made contact with the ball,\u201d Greg Alexander said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that makes any contact with the head, he\u2019s absolutely in trouble,\u201d Cooper Cronk added.<\/p>\n
\u201dHe has tucked the arm. He needs to be cautioned about the way he goes about that because look, technically it probably is a penalty, but it wasn\u2019t just because he made contact with the ball.<\/p>\n
![\"Ponga](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/8005c222bfe1d904be4d6e2eb0923261.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cSo he\u2019s got some challenges when doing cover defence Kalyn Ponga.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a huge scare to the Knights, Ponga was also seen in pain, clutching at his shoulder late on.<\/p>\n
But speaking post-match, Newcastle coach Justin Holbrook eased fears of a potential injury, stating he believes it is just a burner.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s real sore, so he\u2019s getting some work on it now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cKP\u2019s a real sore neck, but I think it might just be one of those burners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally published as Kalyn Ponga learns Origin fate for shoulder charge as glaring \u2018problem\u2019 called out<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kalyn Ponga has been cleared of any wrongdoing as his tackling technique again comes under the microscope, just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-718347","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\/718347","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=718347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}