‘Unfortunate’ reason Raiders gun was denied crucial try by Bunker
Johnathan Thurston was left stunned after the Raiders were denied a stunning try in their 22-10 loss to the Sharks due to the placement of Mackenzie Wiki’s hair.
Wiki put up a tough fight to roll over and score in the right corner in what would have seen the Raiders snatch the lead for the first time in the match, but a simple flaw in her action was quickly spotted by senior Bunker official Gerard Sutton.
Wiki’s ponytail seen touching the white touch line. Nine
A slowed down replay of Wiki’s try showed that while she had grounded the ball correctly, her ponytail had made contact with the sideline before grounding.
As per the rules of rugby league, any physical contact by a player with the touchline will be ruled as “in touch”. As hair is attached to the body, any strand of hair touching the tryline is deemed legally out of bounds.
Thurston was left in disbelief as he heard the ruling announced.
“Oh, that is a try gone begging,” the Maroons great said in commentary on Nine.
“That is a try - that is so unlucky especially for wingers. That is so unfortunate.”
Thurston then recommended that all wingers put their hair in a bun to avoid similar situations unfolding in future. Allana Ferguson then pointed out that in the women’s game, there are a lot more penalties given due to hair related offences.
To add to the disappointment of the Raiders, Jordyn Preston was sent to the sin bin after she made contact with the kicking leg of Cronulla’s Chantay Kiria-Ratu.
Kiria-Ratu did stay down on the turf for a short period before a penalty was awarded to her side and Preston was then ordered to the sin bin.
“They’ve made the right call there,” Thurston said of the sin bin.
Cronulla then secured a 10-4 lead heading into half-time via a Georgia Ravics try.
On return from the break, Jada Taylor looked all but certain to score a try for the visitors thanks to a beautifully set up offload by Quincy Dodd. But Taylor was unable to keep hold of the ball, dropping it cold as she went over the tryline.
“That is one of the great bombed tries in NRLW history,” Peter Psaltis said.
Georgia Hannaway did rectify the mistake her teammate made just four minutes prior and pounced over the tryline to add another six points to Cronulla’s tally.
Sophie Holyman was in no mood to let Cronulla’s lead continue to expand though, crashing over to lower the margin to six points with 10 minutes left on the clock.
But the Sharks got one last try via Dodd to claim their first win of the year, 22-10.
