Penrith Panthers five-eight and New South Wales State of Origin incumbent Jarome Luai could be left in hot water after appearing to push a touch judge following a Penrith Panthers' try on Thursday evening against the Brisbane Broncos.
The incident, which occurred during the first half of the game that was ultimately won 15-4 against the Broncos, came immediately on the back of a controversial Sunia Turuva try which opened the scoring despite appearing to potentially have a double movement included.
In his haste to celebrate the try, Luai made contact with the touch judge who had run in between he and the try-scorer.
What’s the go here? I reckon Jarome Luai thought the ref was a Broncos player, lightly shoved him then realised what he’d done 😬 #NRL pic.twitter.com/cCHHUcqTXw
— Mark Gottlieb (@MarkGottlieb) May 18, 2023
Luai was seen to immediately apologise to the touch judge for the push upon realising who it was.
The NRL have taken a strict zero tolerance approach on players touching match officials in recent years, although this appeared to be an accident, something captain Nathan Cleary confirmed Luai told him it was during the post-game press conference.
"Romey [Jarome Luai] mentioned it to me straight after the game. He said he didn't realise it was the touchie and then apologised straight after," the Penrith captain said of the incident.
Coach Ivan Cleary said there was nothing in the incident.
"Not really. I heard something about it, but I don't think there's much in that," coach Cleary said.
While it would appear unlikely that anything will come of the incident, any charge handed down by the NRL's match review committee for the contact would be revealed on Friday morning.
Forwards Martin Taupau and James Fisher-Harris will also learn if they have anything to worry about at the same time after being placed on report for dangerous tackles during the game.
