NRL referees boss Tony Archer has detailed the reasons behind the on-field referees' decision to send Titans fullback David Mead to the sin bin during his side's 18-all draw with the Sharks at Cbus Super Stadium on Monday night.
With the Sharks ahead 8-0 heading into the final 10 minutes of the first half, Cronulla dummy-half Michael Ennis was denied a chance to play at a loose ball in Gold Coast's in-goal, after the No.9 toed an offload ahead.
Ennis was held back by the Titans defenders, with many wondering why it wasn't Mead's teammate Agnatius Paasi who wasn't ordered from the field instead.
"There are two aspects to this – the ball's passed backwards, the ball's on the ground loose," Archer explained on NRL HQ.
"Michael Ennis comes forward to kick the ball. At that stage Paasi goes down to his knees and attempts to either get the ball or tackle Ennis. But because of the fact that the ball is loose at that stage, the involvement of Paasi is to be penalised but not sin-binned because of that.
"David Mead then enters the tackle as well and prevents Ennis from getting into the in-goal, Ennis doesn't have the ball at that stage and we've been consistent on that this year – that's a penalty and that's a sin bin. So the right man was sin-binned, and [it was] correct to give the penalty."
For more on the contentious refereeing decisions from Round 21, watch this week's NRL HQ
