South Sydney could find themselves in hot water over their concussion protocols after Sam Burgess was allowed to continue playing for several minutes with a concussion that later forced him out of the game.
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In a week when the NRL handed out $350,000 of fines to St George Illawarra, Newcastle and the Gold Coast – the Rabbitohs raised a few eyebrows with the amount of time they took to remove Burgess and also Siosifa Talakai in the first half of their 20-6 loss to the Sydney Roosters on Thursday night.
On a night when Luke Keary starred to lead the Roosters to victory against his old club, Burgess copped a hit to the head attempting to make a tackle on Isaac Liu.
"Sammy was obviously concussed there and the assessments were made," South Sydney coach Michael Maguire said.
"I think he came off after they assessed and had an understanding of what went on on the sidelines. We checked him again at half time but the doctor came over and basically said he won't be going back out. That was the call."
The Englishman was floored before eventually taking his place in the defensive line, only to leave the field a couple of minutes later with seconds remaining on the clock before half-time following a revision of the footage on the sideline.
While Talakai later passed the head injury assessment and cleared to return to the field, Burgess failed his test and took no additional part in the match to ensure concussion protocols in the NRL remain a topic of discussion over the weekend.
"I felt all right on the field but the medical staff, after reviewing the footage, thought I should leave the field," Burgess said.
"I followed their instructions and unfortunately failed the head test at half time. "It is there to protect the players. It's disappointing but it's what we have to do now as players."
The Roosters will also remain a topic of discussion after continuing their impressive unbeaten start to the year with another strong performance. Keary, who was marched out of Redfern by co-owner Russell Crowe last season, gave his old club a reminder of what they are missing out on – although his opposite number Cody Walker was equally impressive in a losing side.
Keary's combination with Latrell Mitchell and Daniel Tupou terrorised the Rabbitohs, who struggled to contain the potent trio on a wet night at ANZ Stadium. Tupou, who last year was a shadow of the player who previously earned representative honours, appears to have rediscovered his mojo outside of Mitchell.
The young Roosters centre has been a revelation since moving to left centre, arguably the Roosters' best player alongside Keary to start 2017.
"It is really nice to be 4-0," Roosters coach Trent Robinson said. "Our expectations are high. But what we produced today won't be good enough in six to eight weeks time. We were exceptional in 'D and average in attack."
With Greg Inglis out for the season, the Rabbitohs couldn't afford to lose Burgess for the second half and now find themselves with two wins and two losses from the opening four rounds.
The Roosters have eight days to prepare for their round-five clash against Manly at Allianz Stadium next Friday night, but the Rabbitohs have the arduous task of travelling to Townsville for a showdown with Johnathan Thurston, Jason Taumalolo and company.
The Roosters opened their account through Mitchell, running over untouched on the end of a sweeping back-line play for an early 6-0 lead. Rookie Joseph Manu combined with Mitchell Pearce to put Michael Gordon into open space, with the fullback standing up Alex Johnston to double their advantage inside 14 minutes. The Roosters went into the break with a 14 point buffer courtesy of a Gordon penalty goal, however South Sydney answered with their first four-pointer of the match through Fijian debutant Sitiveni Moceidreke.
But the tri-colours didn't waste any time regaining the ascendancy as Keary, Mitchell and Tupou combined yet again to head out to an unassailable 20-6 lead with a quarter of the game remaining.
The rain contributed to an ordinary finish to the match as the errors crept in, but the Roosters did the damage in the first 15 minutes of the match by exploding out of the blocks to set up their victory.
