The NRL has taken no action despite Tom Burgess appearing to grab Bulldogs rival Josh Reynolds’ genitals.
Replays from the Rabbitohs’ thrashing of Canterbury in their Good Friday showdown showed Burgess appearing to grab Reynolds around his private parts as he attempted to get back to his feet.
Reynolds was seen on the live TV broadcast blowing up about the contact — but no action was taken against Burgess on the field.
The NRL match review committee announced on Saturday no charges had been issued from the match.
Bulldogs back-rower Jacob Preston also escaped any judiciary action with match review officials ruling no punishments were needed despite the rookie being sent to the sin bin for a hip drop tackle on South Sydney’s Izaac Thompson.
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Fans have been left angered by what some have called inconsistency in the game’s crackdown on hip drop tackles.
Fans also took to social media after the game to slam Burgess.
One video of the incident posted on Twitter has more than 60,000 views, at the time of reporting on Saturday afternoon.
Burgess is seen in replays tugging at Reynolds’ crotch at the end of a tackle. It appears Burgess was not looking in Reynolds’ direction at the time of the apparent contact.
Reynolds immediately screamed at the referee.
As play continued, Reynolds was penalised in the following tackle for being in an offside position before he was seen slinging a Rabbitohs player to the ground in an ugly tackle.
After giving away the penalty, Reynolds continued to appeal to the referee and pointed at his genitals as he was speaking with the whistle-blower.
Fox League expert an NRL legend Cooper Cronk said it was “poor play” from Reynolds to give away the penalty.
“Josh Reynolds was protesting to the referee that something had happened,” Cronk said on the live broadcast.
“And he never retreated offside and then got involved in the tackle. It’s the guy that had just come on the field to make an impact and chase down the scoreboard so it’s a poor play from Reynolds.”
While no charges were recorded for that match, the match review committee charged four players in the Dolphins’ win over the Cowboys.
Coen Hess, Peta Hiku, Kodi Nikorima and Brenko Lee were all hit with Grade 1 offences and can escape suspensions if they accept fines and register an early guilty plea.
