Another tackle-related suspension has put NZ Warriors under the spotlight for their discipline on defence, as they battle for an NRLW playoff spot in their comeback season.
With front-rower Matekino Gray and centre Tysha Ikenasio already serving multi-week bans for their indiscretions against Canberra Raiders last week, lock Laishon Albert-Jones will join them on the sidelines against St George-Illawarra Dragons on Saturday.
Albert-Jones, 27, has taken an early guilty plea and accepted a two-week standdown for her careless high tackle on Cronulla Sharks front-rower Stephanie Faulkner – her second such offence of the campaign, after previously receiving a warning against Canterbury Bulldogs in Round 6.
Last week, Warriors coach Ron Griffiths accepted his team’s tackling was an issue, after Gray was sent off for tipping an opponent beyond the horizontal and, moments later, Ikenasio also departed for a ‘hipdrop’ tackle.
Their dismissals left their team two players short for almost 50 minutes, as they eventually rallied to fall just four points short of victory regardless.
Gray, 20, will serve the second week of her two-game suspension against the Dragons, while Ikenasio, 27, will be out another week with her three games.
“We ask [Gray] for one or two things in the middle,” Griffiths said. “One of them is to impose herself on the middle defensive and she certainly does that.
“It definitely went wrong, but while she’s aggressive, it’s never foul play. Unfortunately, things just didn’t go well for her the other night.
“She loves the game and loves being that person that can own the middle of the park, but she was certainly contrite afterwards.”
The tipping tackle has been a no-go zone since Kiwis Jesse and Kenny Bromwich were involved in one that left Newcastle Knights NRL forward Alex McKinnon paralysed in 2014.
The hipdrop has more recently become a notorious feature of rugby league, with the tackling player dumping their bodyweight on the legs of the tackled player, often resulting in serious injury.
“At the start of the season, the NRLW went through a process with the coaches over the hipdrop,” Griffiths said. “They showed us vision and gave us some ideas over tackle technique.
“If you look every week at how many hipdrops are either penalised or unpenalised, it does expose some different things we need to keep working on as a code.”
Raiders forward Monalisa Soliola will miss the rest of the season with the injury from Ikenasio’s tackle.
“It’s unfortunate,” Griffiths said. “We’re still trying to teach her how to tackle out there and it’s a valuable lesson that we’ll all learn.
“You won’t meet a better person and she was very, very upset over causing an injury to someone else.”
Ikenasio – who was travelling reserve for the champion Black Ferns Sevens at the 2024 Paris Olympics – and many of her teammates are still transitioning from a rugby union background, where defensive technique is subtly different.
“Some of these ladies haven’t played from U7s through to first grade,” Griffiths said. “They could be in their third year of rugby league or even less, so we’re teaching them how to tackle in a one-on-one scenario.”
None of that applies to Albert-Jones – the niece of Warriors legend Stacey Jones – who has a long history in the game, including tests for the Kiwi Ferns and an NRLW premiership under Griffiths at Newcastle.
Her offence was a shoulder to the head of Faulkner, who passed a subsequent head assessment and returned to score the decisive try in a 22-14 Sharks victory.
With Albert-Jones serving her 10 minutes in the sin bin, Cronulla slotted the penalty goal and scored a converted try to seize control of the contest.
She has been replaced in the Warriors line-up by Makayla Eli, who made her NRLW debut against Gold Coast last month.
The top six teams progress to playoffs and, after a five-year hiatus, the wāhine sit seventh, two points adrift, with three games remaining in the regular season.
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