A “frustrated” Todd Payten has launched to the defence of Cowboys star Valentine Holmes, who was sin-binned for a hip-drop tackle in his side’s 42-28 win over the Tigers on Friday night.
Holmes was sent to the bin in the 36th minute for his tackle on Tigers second-rower Isaiah Papali’i, who suffered an ankle injury from the incident.
With the Queensland Origin squad to be named on Monday, the 28-year-old now faces a nervous wait for the charge sheet to drop to determine whether he will be available for game one.
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When asked in the post-game press conference if Holmes has a case to answer, Payten said “absolutely not” before taking aim at the bunker.
“It wasn’t a hip-drop to start so I’m gobsmacked at the interference from the bunker in that situation,” he said.
“I don’t know what a rugby league player is supposed to do when they’re going for a try and he lunges at their legs — and he’s going to land on their legs. I’ve got no doubt about where he’s going to land.
“But it’s not a hip drop and our game has tried to stamp out the hip-drop where there is a guy standing in a tackle and they lose their legs and land on the legs.”
Payten proceeded to call out the inconsistencies in sin-bins and what’s deemed to be a hip-drop and used Tigers prop David Klemmer — who was put on report but not binned — as an example.
Valentine Holmes cops 10 for hip drop | 01:05
“Textbook — David Klemmer in the second half — and nothing happened,” he said.
“The bunker has every right to interfere there and get the call right. We lose one (player) for 10 and they (don’t).
“The inconsistency annoys the crap out of me, the players, our members and fans of the game.
“Every time it goes into a bunker situation I get nervous, really nervous and I’m sure the players feel the same. Because the sin-binning just changes the complex of the game and it’s so hard to wrestle back momentum.
“With all the camera angles they can’t be getting that wrong amongst other calls as well. It’s just so frustrating.”
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The Tigers did score while having a one-man advantage and got themselves back into the fight at different stages of the game.
But Payten conceded that also had a lot to do with the Cowboys’ inability to play the full 80 minutes.
“We’ve got ourselves to blame in parts of it, absolutely. I’m not shying away from some of the work we need to do to get it right,” he said.
“But the bunker and the sin-binning frustrated the hell out of me.”
Payten believes there some “very good” patches in his team’s performance but added: “we’ve
still got some bad patches we’ve got to eradicate.”
One of those patches no doubt will be the final five minutes where the Cowboys leaked two Tigers tries in two minutes.
Payten admitted those “left a sour taste in my mouth.”
Source Agencies
