The Newcastle Knights’ fury surrounding Tyson Frizell’s accidental hair pull on Jarome Luai doesn’t look like it will go away any time soon as an alarmingly similar incident in another game went unpunished.
During the Cronulla Sharks’ 22-12 victory over the Sydney Roosters on Friday night, Roosters halfback Sam Walker brought down Siosifa Talakai in a tackle.
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The Sydney Morning Heralddrew attention towards the incident on Sunday night, with Talakai immediately gesturing to the referee that Walker had pulled on his hair.
But the incident went unpunished as the Sharks went on to their third game of the season.
Just a day later, the Knights’ fell foul of the hair pull rule at a crucial moment in the contest.
With Newcastle holding a slender 14-8 lead over the Penrith Panthers in the 56th minute, Frizell attempted to tackle Luai.
In his efforts to bring down the Panthers livewire, Frizell grabbed the back of Luai’s jersey but accidentally collected some of his hair in the process as well.
Referee Peter Gough immediately blew the whistle to gift the Panthers a crucial advantage which they happily took with both hands as utility man Jaeman Salmon scored the equalising try.
Nathan Cleary then iced the game in golden point with a matchwinning field goal.
Panthers ice Knights in GP thriller | 02:13
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Speaking after the game, Frizell maintained his hair pull “wasn’t intentional” and reiterated his desire for players with long hair to tie it up.
“When his hair is hanging halfway down his back and I am going to make a tackle it is incidental,” Frizell said in the post-game press conference.
“I guess if I do pull his hair it is classified as a penalty, but it wasn’t intentional and I’d like for him to tie his hair up.”
Knights coach Adam O’Brien was brutally honest in his take of the incident, branding Gough’s decision as “ridiculous.”
“Huge (call), it is ridiculous, otherwise I will advise them all to start growing their hair long,” O’Brien said.
“To try and get an advantage, it was ridiculous.”
