On the day he broke the club record for games played, Roosters enforcer Jared Waerea-Hargreaves was sin binned for a high shot in the first half of his team’s clash against the Dragons.
In the 17th minute of his 307th game for the club, Waerea-Hargreaves shot out of the line and collected Dragons outside back Max Feagai high.
The NRL slapped him with a three-game ban with the early guilty plea for his careless high tackle, being his third and subsequent offence.
“It wouldn’t be Jared Waerea-Hargreaves’ milestone game without him coming out of the line and collecting someone just a little bit high,” Fox League’s Warren Smith said.
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Waerea-Hargreaves’ former teammate Cooper Cronk then added: “We might have to look at this Warren because has he missed his target.”
The Roosters prop, who sported a gold #8 on his jersey to mark the milestone game, tried to plead to referee Ashley Klein after he was called out.
“That’s not ten. That’s not ten Ashley,” he said.
Those pleas fell on deaf ears though.
“What’s happened there is you’ve run out of the line, there’s a level of high force so it’s on report and in the bin,” Klein explained to the prop as boos rang out over Allianz Stadium.
“This is part of the script today. It was probably written in the stars all the way back in game one for the Roosters in 2010,” Smith said.
“As he breaks the record, he comes out of the line and collects the ball carrier high.”
Former rugby league hardman Steve Roach didn’t think the tackle warranted a sin bin, but Cronk thought it did.
“I can’t believe that. There was more shoulder, he wrapped his arms. May have went a little bit high,” Roach said.
“I don’t know about that.”
“Blocky there was a bit of aggression and he got him high. There is no swinging arm but there is contact to the head,” Cronk countered.
Cronk noted that in typical Waerea-Hargreaves fashion, the prop was toeing the line prior to the sin binning in order to fire his team up.
“What price was Jared to get a sin binning today? He would have been short odds,” Smith said.
“Very short odds,” Cronk replied.
“He tread a fine line to start this game, pulled off some big hits but this one went to high and put his team under pressure.”
Luckily for the Roosters, the Dragons didn’t score while Waerea-Hargreaves was in the bin, unable to capitalise on the one-man advantage.