{"id":621546,"date":"2026-10-05T19:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T19:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/621546\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T19:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T19:08:13","slug":"kalyn-ponga-charged-by-mrc-over-high-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/621546\/","title":{"rendered":"Kalyn Ponga charged by MRC over high shot"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New Zealand<\/a> Kiwis will have Kalyn Ponga<\/a> available for the opening game of the Rugby League<\/a> World Cup after the NRL’s Match Review Committee hit the star fullback with a Grade 1 careless high tackle charge.<\/p>\n

Ponga was penalised for a 25th minute high shot on Victor Radley<\/a> during the Newcastle Knights’ grand final loss on Sunday evening, but stayed on the field.<\/p>\n

The tackle was debated in the aftermath, with some suggesting that he would have been sin binned if the tackle had been made during the regular season.<\/p>\n

The Grade 1 charge – a first on Ponga’s record – will see him pay a $1000 early guilty plea fine, or $1500 if he fights and loses at the panel.<\/p>\n

Either way, he is cleared to play the opening game of the World Cup for New Zealand<\/a> when it clashes with Australia<\/a> next Thursday, with NRL<\/a> suspensions counting towards internationals.<\/p>\n

There were no other charges handed out by the MRC for the game, despite there appearing to be a missed hip drop late in the contest, and a missed shoulder charge early in the match from Roosters forward Naufahu Whyte<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Roosters claimed the premiership by a single point over the Knights in a thrilling grand final played in front of more than 80,000 fans.<\/p>\n

Ponga needs to make a plea call by midday (AEDT) on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New Zealand Kiwis will have Kalyn Ponga available for the opening game of the Rugby League World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-621546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}