‘Ugly tackle’ puts Storm gun’s Origin hopes in severe doubt

Christian Welch’s hopes at returning to Queensland’s State of Origin side have taken a hit after he was sin binned against Cronulla.

The prop was sent from the field late in the match for a hip drop tackle on Royce Hunt, who had to be assisted from the field.

It was a major blip in Melbourne’s dominant 54-10 win over the Sharks in Nick Meaney’s 100th match. 

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The incident with Welch occurred in the 75th minute and wasn’t picked up straight away, with the Bunker intervening.

”You’ve dropped your body weight, you’ve rotated and landed on the leg,” referee Ashley Klein told Welch has he sent him to the bin.

Welch was Queensland’s 19th man in game one and is in contention to replace Jai Arrow after the interchange player was ruled out with injury.

Post-game, Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon said he wasn’t sure on the severity of Hunt’s injury. 

Welch also commented on the incident and wasn’t sure if he would be selected in Origin.

“I think I landed on the ground first and it was just a bit of an ugly tackle … I wasn’t in the team for game one so I don’t know if I would even be picked to be honest,” he said.

Overall for Melbourne, the win was a massive improvement on a 45-20 loss to the Cowboys last week.

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Tui Kamikamica opened the scoring in controversial circumstances, with the Bunker ruling he didn’t knock the ball on while attempting to score after Brad Fittler and Andrew Johns both claimed he dropped it on Nine’s coverage.

Teig Wilton helped the Sharks return fire with a try in the seventh minute but from there it was all downhill.

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Will Warbrick, Grant, Coates, Josh King, Reimis Smith and Jahrome Hughes all scored tries in a demolition effort. Smith may have some cause for concern after he left the field with a left hamstring injury.

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Ronaldo Mulitalo scored a consolation try for the Sharks in the 76th minute, but it wasn’t enough to stop Melbourne claiming its biggest ever win over Cronulla. 

Immortal Andrew Johns said it’s hard to pinpoint the exact reason behind Cronulla’s downfall on Sunday afternoon.

“It’s hard to get a read on them, it’s not the same team from last year … today the fundamental errors, coming out of trouble in the first half (were costly),” he said on Nine’s coverage.

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