Sydney Roosters head coach Trent Robinson has revealed he wasn't impressed with the decision to sin bin Sam Walker during his side's narrow win over the St George Illawarra Dragons on Saturday evening at Kogarah.
Walker, who played his first NRL game in almost a year following an ACL injury, and then a delayed return owing to a broken thumb, had some nice moments, but also looked rusty in patches.
In a wild start to the game, five tries were scored in the opening 20 minutes, but things settled from there with the tri-colours eventually claiming a narrow win.
Walker was sin binned in the lead up to halftime, and while it didn't cost the Roosters anything on the scoreboard, Robinson, who admitted it wasn't a good tackle, said the price paid was 'heavy', with Walker spending ten minutes off the park and the Roosters reduced to 12 men.
"Look, obviously you can't do that. (But) I feel like that's a pretty heavy price for possibly the lowest contact that you could possibly put on a tackle," Robinson said during the post-match press conference.
"There's no force in that tackle at all, it's like the old schoolyard kneel down behind them and push them over type of thing.
"It's not something we don't want to see, but there's no force in that. We've had guys be out for six weeks with MCLs with no penalties.
"All of a sudden, we get to a sin bin for that, I was surprised with that."
Robinson's comments do raise a reasonable point, though, given Siua Wong was taken out by a tackle that wasn't penalised a few weeks ago.
The second-rower has been sidelined for up to six weeks with an MCL injury.
Walker finished his return game with a try assist and a field goal while he also kicked four from four goals and ran for 47 metres from 7 carries of the ball.
