Nelson Asofa-Solomona has been let off for his sickening hit on Warriors star Wayde Egan. Photo / Photosport
Nelson Asofa-Solomona has been let off for his sickening hit on Warriors star Wayde Egan. Photo / Photosport
OPINION:
What will it take for the NRL to treat foul play seriously?
Exactly what level of career threatening situation or injury will we need to see, before it is decided that enough is enough and proper punishments are handed down to protect players and clean up the game?
Thoseare obvious questions, in the wake of the bizarre decision to not charge Melbourne Storm prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona with an offence, after his sickening shot on Warriors hooker Wayde Egan in last Friday's game.
League has made plenty of progress in recent decades, moving away from the 'anything goes' nature of the sport in the 1970s and 1980s, but a scenario like this takes us back to the dark ages.
World Rugby gets a lot of criticism, magnified during the recent All Blacks-Ireland series, where the foul play rules can seem draconian and impractical.
But they are based on good intentions, where protection of the head is sacrosanct and offences, whether intentional or accidental, are punished accordingly.
The NRL makes all the right noises about cleaning up the sport and safeguarding players – and has made some good progress – then something like this happens.
Asofa-Solomona jumped up off the ground, as he used his full bodyweight (120 kg) to smash Egan's head into the Mt Smart turf, leading with his forearm and elbow, while Egan was already being held by two other tacklers.
It was like a WWE move, except those are fake and the combatants are landing on a spring floor.
The consequences could have been really bad.
It's still hard to understand how Egan didn't sustain a broken jaw, or require extensive facial surgery this week. Or perhaps something worse? Imagine if the contact point of Asofa-Solomona's elbow had been a few centimetres higher? It's better not to.
Wayde Egan suffered some cracked teeth as a result of the dodgy tackle. Photo / Photosport
The replay makes for horrific viewing.
Asofa-Solomona plays the game hard, in the toughest area of the field and is an engaging personality off it.
But this was clearly a moment of madness from the 26-year-old. But not for NRL's match review committee, who apparently spent an hour deliberating and poring over the footage, before deciding that Asofa-Solomona wouldn't have to face the judiciary.
The decision was made even worse by the release of the video explanation of match review committee chairman Luke Patten, which, if it wasn't so sad, would be comedy gold.
Patten uses all kinds of bewildering language and logic to justify why Asofa-Solomona had in fact done nothing wrong or deliberate, but it was about as convincing as pet shop owner John Cleese in the immortal Monty Python 'Dead Parrot' skit.
At the very least – if there is any doubt – Patten should refer the case to the judiciary but he ended up sounding like a teammate or Storm official in his forensic explanation of Asofa-Solomona's innocence.
This ugly scenario is damaging in several ways.
It sets a dangerous precedent for future incidents and will be used by clubs and lawyers as a reference.
It sends a message at all levels of league that this kind of thing is okay, when those at the coal face are working so hard to discourage foul play and violence.
And it is a bad look for the game, at a time when young people and their parents have more choices than ever in terms of sporting pursuits.
The best we can hope is that something good comes out of this fiasco.
Maybe it will be another fork in the road, forcing the NRL to examine its refereeing interpretations and judicial guidelines, so that appropriate, proper sanctions are applied in the future.
