NSW State of Origin star Zac Lomax has avoided sanction from the NRL’s match review committee after he was put on report for dangerous contact during the Dragons’ second-half destruction of the hapless Tigers.
Lomax collided in mid-air with Solomon Alaimalo in the 63rd minute while attacking a bomb, resulting in the Tigers’ rookie winger landing heavily on his head before leaving the field.
Alaimalo suffered a category one concussion, ruling him out of the match and next week’s Tigers’ clash with the Titans.
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With the Dragons well and truly in control of the game, Lomax came flying from the middle of the field chasing Ben Hunt’s kick, leading to the nasty collision. The in form winger always had eyes for the ball, but he appeared to mistime his contact and ended up pounding into Alaimalo’s midriff.
“Oh no Zac,” Fox Sports commentator Dan Ginnane called the collision.
“Oh no. Oh no, that could hurt both and Lomax has put himself in a bad position and an obvious penalty against him as Alaimalo is in trouble.”
Lomax notches up 32 points in huge win | 03:23
Dragons’ coach Shane Flanagan saw things a little differently, suggesting Lomax didn’t have much to worry about from officials on Saturday morning.
“He was contesting the ball, you know. He only had eyes for the football,” he said.
“We’ve seen Zac, I could give you 20 of them this year that he just has eyes for the football and goes through and jumps and is in a contest.
“Unfortunately, this just went wrong, you know. But I don’t think he did anything wrong. It’s unfortunate.”
On Saturday morning, the NRL Match Review Committee confirmed there were no charges from Friday night’s match.
It was a bittersweet night for Lomax who was sensational for the Dragons less than 48 hours after making his Origin debut for the Blues.
The Parramatta bound centre-come-winger scored a Dragons individual record 32 points on the night with three tries and a perfect ten goals from as many attempts to go with 184 running metres. On Wednesday night against Queensland he had 224m and a try, bringing his running total to 408m and four tries across 160 minutes of football.
The Dragons next face Manly at 4 Pines Park next Sunday, with Michael Maguire’s squad for Origin 2 to be named later that night.