The Sydney Roosters could be without two of their enforcers for the start of the NRL finals after Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Zane Tetevano were put on report in Thursday’s upset loss to South Sydney.
The pair will on Friday come under the scrutiny of the match review committee for heavy hits which floored their opponents in the 16-10 loss.
Waerea-Hargreaves was penalised for collecting Liam Knight high which knocked out the Souths prop, left him bloodied and forced him from ANZ Stadium on a medicab.
While it can’t be argued the Kiwi Test front-rower hit his opponent high, most of the damage was caused when Knight’s head rebounded off Waerea-Hargreaves’ arm and into Lindsay Collin’s head.
“I don’t know what (Waerea-Hargreaves) could have done, (his arm) wasn’t clenched,” Robinson said.
“It was a penalty, you can’t hit the head. But I don’t know what else he could have done.
“It was Lindsay’s (head did most of the damage to Knight) and they both got split from it.”
However, Waerea-Hargreaves’ poor disciplinary record could count against him.
Earlier this year he was suspended for two games for a dangerous tackle on Newcastle’s Kalyn Ponga.
While Tetevano is also facing a stint on the sidelines and is in danger of missing the Roosters’ week one final match, against either Canberra or South Sydney.
Tetevano pulled off a jarring off-the-ball hit on Adam Doueihi which left the Souths fullback lying on the ground needing medical attention.
After Damien Cook jumped out of dummy-half, he looked to pass in-field and flung it across Douehi’s face to Junior Tatola, who raced into the back-field to set up Cody Walker’s try.
Instead of taking the man with the ball, Tetevano lined up Doueihi and took him out without the No.1 touching the ball.
His defensive error ultimately cost his side a crucial try which gave Souths what proved to be a winning lead.
“It’s a hard one, it looked like it was going (to Doueihi) and it went straight across his face, it was a really hard one,” Robinson said.