Sydney Roosters have been left seething, after Parramatta Eels half Dylan Brown went unpunished for a dangerous tackle attempt that saw a Roosters player rushed to hospital.
In the final minute of second half of the Eels 31-18 win, Drew Hutchison copped a brutal shot to the ribs by Brown, who appeared to lead with his knees in an effort to deny the half a try in the corner.
Hutchison immediately left the game with a suspected punctured lung and broken ribs and was taken by ambulance to hospital.
The Bunker waived off the try and Brown wasn't put on report, despite multiple replays.
That left the Roosters unable to replace Hutchison with 18th man Joseph Suaalii, which would have been permitted under a reportable offense.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson later called the incident "ridiculous".
"They looked at it ten times and couldn't find anything," Robinson said.
"Then, they had all of halftime and then we run out at halftime and they say it's on report now.
"They could have told us ten minutes in so I could've changed it in the dressing room. But they told us as we were running out on the field.
"I had to make a split-second change as we were running out on the field. It’s ridiculous, it's incompetent to not see that.
"Guy goes to hospital and then how long would that? 20 minutes later, you put him on report.
"It's ridiculous. That wasn't good enough tonight."
To add insult to injury, James Tedesco was caught with a heavy high shot earlier in the same movement by Eels centre Marata Niukore, which was penalised and placed on report but arguably deserved further punishment.
"That's astounding," Fox League's Michael Ennis said of Brown's tackle.
"I don't know how with all the time we had and Bunker reviews that Dylan Brown wasn't sin binned."
The NRL has been swift in its response, immediately standing down the bunker officials involved from their scheduled duties in Saturday's Cowboys-Broncos game.
NRL head of football Graham Annesley says the team - led by senior official Steve Chiddy - "did not meet our expectations".
"[Referees coach] Jared [Maxwell] and I were extremely unhappy about a number of decisions which occurred throughout the game," Annesley says.
"We expect a high standard of performance from all of our match officials, and they are accountable for their performances just like everyone else in the game. The performance last night did not meet our expectations."
Despite their injury woes, the Roosters rallied to push the Eels to the brink, despite making an astonishing 152 more tackles than their opponents.
But another brilliant outing from rookie half Sam Walker and a Matt Ikuvalu hat trick wasn't enough for the Roosters, as a quickfire brace from Bryce Cartwright wrapped up victory for the second-placed Eels.
In the earlier game, Penrith Panthers continued their flawless start to the season with a 48-0 destruction of Cronulla Sharks.
Nathan Cleary ran the show for the Panthers, as Charlie Staines ran in a hat-trick of tries to keep the Panthers undefeated through nine rounds.
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