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NRL 2021: Jared Waerea-Hargreaves unleashes on Latrell Mitchell after controversial shoulder charge

Jasper BruceNCA NewsWire
Tempers flared on the field before referee Ashley Klein sent Mitchell to the sin bin. Image: NRL Photos
Camera IconTempers flared on the field before referee Ashley Klein sent Mitchell to the sin bin. Image: NRL Photos Credit: Supplied

Rabbitohs star Latrell Mitchell ended both Joey Manu’s season and his own when he put a shoulder charge on the Roosters centre in Friday night’s game, but the fallout from the incident didn’t end there.

On Sunday, it came to light that Roosters veteran Jared Waerea-Hargreaves had launched an expletive-laden tirade at Mitchell as the sin-binned fullback left the field.

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According to Fox Sports’ James Hooper, the altercation between Mitchell and Waerea-Hargreaves was “one of the most bitter and fiery feuds that we’ve seen on the field” in recent times.

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“We know that Jared Waerea-Hargreaves is the Roosters’ enforcer and when Latrell was sin-binned, Jared took it very personally about what’d happened on the field,” Hooper said on Sunday night’s episode of Big League Wrap.

“Given this is a 7pm timeslot … we’d better look after the expletive and colourful language but you can rest in no uncertain terms that Jared went at Latrell and gave it to him both barrels. A lot of adjectives, a lot of expletives.”

Tempers flared on the field before referee Ashley Klein sent Mitchell to the sin bin. Image: NRL Photos
Camera IconTempers flared on the field before referee Ashley Klein sent Mitchell to the sin bin. Image: NRL Photos Credit: Supplied

The war of words threatened to escalate, before Roosters coach Trent Robinson, who was watching the game from the sideline, intervened.

“I think it threatened to really boil over at one point until Trent Robinson actually had to get involved and just say, ‘Listen, let’s just let Latrell go up to the tunnel and serve his ten minutes’,” Hooper said.

“Then when Latrell actually came back on the field, there’s pictures of Jared standing on the sideline eyeballing him from 20 metres away.

“The book of feuds has well and truly got plenty of material now.”

Waerea-Hargreaves’ Roosters teammate James Tedesco wasn’t as irate in his response to the incident.

“(Mitchell) said he didn’t mean it and it was an accident,” The Dally M-winning fullback told Fox League.

“Latrell I don’t think he would do it on purpose, but it is forceful contact to the head so whether it is an accident or not it causes someone to break a fair amount of bones in his face. “So it must be pretty forceful and to the head, so I know that you just can’t do that. You just can’t.

“He plays with fire and passion and that what makes him such a great player, but I guess it is just finding that balance of not overstepping the line.

“I don’t think you want to be breaking people’s faces.”

In his post-match press conference, Robinson was incredulous at the referee’s decision not to send Mitchell off for the tackle.

“The guy is off in hospital and they send him for ten in the bin, ten in the bin. It was laughable,” he said.

Mitchell’s hit sent Manu (R) to hospital. Image: NRL Photos
Camera IconMitchell’s hit sent Manu (R) to hospital. Image: NRL Photos Credit: Supplied

The NRL’s match review committee hit Mitchell with a grade two reckless high tackle charge and on Sunday, the 24-year-old accepted a six-game early guilty plea. Pending the outcome of this year’s finals series, he could miss as many as three games of next season as well as the remainder of the Rabbitohs’ 2021 campaign.

Had he unsuccessfully challenged his charge at the NRL judiciary, Mitchell would have been rubbed out for nine games.

While the Rabbitohs sit in third position with one game to play, NRL pundits have cast doubt over the side’s ability to win the premiership without its star fullback.

“Latrell Mitchell has the same impact that Nathan Cleary has on the Panthers,” said 2016 premiership winner Michael Ennis on Big League Wrap.

“It’s an enormous loss for them. People will say that they’ve still won five of six games without Latrell Mitchell this year but that was against sides that have been in that lower part of the eight or around that eighth position.

“If they want to win the premiership without Latrell, they’re going to have to beat Parramatta, Penrith and the Melbourne Storm and they struggled against the Melbourne Storm as it is.

“Without Latrell Mitchell, I absolutely can’t see them winning.”

“You only have to see that loss against Penrith the week before … and that was with Latrell in the side,” added 2004 premiership winner Braith Anasta.

“I wouldn’t put a line through them but I highly doubt it.”

The Rabbitohs face the Dragons in their final game of the regular season and are likely to meet the Panthers in the first week of the finals series. Penrith has defeated South Sydney in six of the sides’ last seven encounters.

Should the Storm lose to the Sharks next weekend and the Panthers defeat the Eels, the Rabbitohs will instead face Craig Bellamy’s Melburnians, whom South Sydney has defeated just once since 2014.

Originally published as NRL 2021: Jared Waerea-Hargreaves unleashes on Latrell Mitchell after controversial shoulder charge

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