Nelson Asofa-Solomona could consider himself lucky to have stayed on the field after an elbow from the Storm prop saw a Melbourne try rubbed off the board and Manly hooker Jake Simpkin ruled out of Saturday’s game.
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The Storm looked to have hit back after Manly scored three consecutive tries to take a 16-6 lead, with Harry Grant taking on the line off a quick play-the-ball and slicing through.
But replays later showed Asofa-Solomona elbowing Simpkin in the head as he fought to play the ball and the Bunker subsequently intervened, with the try taken off the board.
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It ended up also being a costly moment for Manly as Simpkin was later ruled to be displaying Category 1 concussion symptoms and was subsequently ruled out for the game.
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Fox League’s Eloise Sohier later reported that the Sea Eagles and coach Anthony Seibold were “blowing up” over that ruling, believing that it should have been a Category 2 and that Simpkin was fine to play on.
Nonetheless, Asofa-Solomona may have been lucky to not spend time in the sin bin for his actions and could come under scrutiny from the NRL’s match review committee.
Flanno SLAMS ‘outrageous ref calls’ | 05:24
