NRL News: Andrew Johns rails against punishment of Sydney Roosters player for ‘horrific’ incident

NRL legend Andrew Johns has criticised the punishment for Roosters centre Junior Pauga as too lenient after he was sent off for a high tackle on Saturday night. The Roosters showed one of their best 80-minute performances so far in the NRL season after defeating the Bulldogs 26-8 in pouring rain.

The end of the duel took a turn, however, when Pauga was sent off for running out of the defensive line and hitting Connor Tracey in the head with a swinging arm. “That’s direct contact to the head and he’s going to leave the field here, that’s a swinging arm… that’s a bad one,” Michael Ennis said on Fox Sports commentary.

Fellow commentator Warren Smith added: “Tracey is on the field and there are obviously concerns about his health. You don’t have to watch much rugby to know that Junior’s night is over.” There was no protest from the players when Pauga stomped off the field with seven minutes left.

After Sam Walker spent 10 minutes on the bench for a professional foul, the Roosters were reduced to 11 men for several sets and managed to hold the Bulldogs scoreless during that time. While the Roosters were winning, Pauga learned he would be out for four weeks for the dangerous tackle on Tracey.

However, NRL greats Johns and Brad Fittler agreed Pauga should spend more time on the bench after claiming it was one of the most dangerous tackles seen on the field in 2024. “Four weeks? A million per cent (it should have been more),” Johns said on Channel Nine’s Sunday Footy Show. “That was a stiff arm, an old-fashioned coat hanger. It’s hard to watch.”

Johns was referring to a tactic this year that saw wingers and centres crowd in to make an early tackle. That tactic has backfired several times and is becoming increasingly dangerous. “When they’re crowding in from the outside on the centres and wingers to apply pressure, you have to do it right,” Johns said.

“We’ve seen Maika Sivo get pinged a couple of times, obviously we’ve seen (Joseph) Sua’ali’i in Origin… but this is awful,” Johns added. Fittler agreed, saying four weeks seemed a short time for the swinging-arm tackle.

“I don’t understand where they get the four weeks from,” he added. “I’ve been watching Junior this year, he’s had an incredible season, but I think he slips up just before the chase. I’ve never seen anything like that in his game, but four weeks…” he said.

Queensland great Sam Thaiday agreed that Pauga made the tackle completely wrong. “He did everything wrong on it,” Thaiday said. “It was a very lame attempt at a tackle. He deserved to be sent off and I think four weeks is pretty short for that kind of tackle.”

Joseph Suaalii is sent off in State Origin

Pauga’s incident came just a couple of weeks after his clubmate Joseph Suaalii was sent off for a high kick on Reece Walsh in the first State of Origin game. Suaalii grabbed Walsh after he ran off the line before Walsh bent slightly, prompting the Blues centre to high tackle him.

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Suaalii also received four weeks for his tackle and will miss Origin Game 2. However, many fans felt sorry for Suaalii and said the tackle did not deserve an outright sending off. Blues coach Michael Maguire was of the opinion at the time that the sending off in the Origin Arena was a major criticism.

“It was disappointing he got sent off but that’s what they called it,” NSW coach Maguire said after NSW lost 38-10 with 12 players. “It’s a big decision at this level. Reece was on the way out, I’ll have to look at it again but it’s a huge decision.”