Panthers Escape Punishment After Nat Butcher Injury as Trent Robinson Expresses Frustration

Trent Robinson, the coach of the Roosters, has expressed his disappointment regarding the officiating during Saturday night’s match, particularly following Nat Butcher’s knee injury in their defeat against the Panthers.

Butcher was brought down in a three-man tackle just four minutes into the game, with Liam Martin and Nathan Cleary applying pressure from above while Mitch Kenny targeted low.

Kenny ended up behind Butcher’s body as he executed the tackle, leaving the Roosters prop in distress as he struggled to regain his feet to continue play.

Despite the severity of the incident, Kenny was neither sin-binned nor put on report, and the Panthers were awarded no penalty.

“He’s struggling to get back up. There was a fair bit of impact in that tackle,” said commentator Dan Ginnane on Fox League.

“Butcher managed to stand but was clearly limping.”

The prop attempted to play on for another eight minutes but ultimately had to leave the field, making way for Spencer Leniu.

After the match, Robinson made his feelings clear.

“He’s sustained an MCL injury, which is very disappointing,” he stated. “There was no mention of it during the game. He sustains an MCL injury from a tackle and that’s it for the night.”

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When asked for his opinion on the tackle, the Roosters coach was straightforward.

“There’s no ambiguity from where I stand,” he remarked. “Not to have even a discussion and for a player to suffer an MCL and be ruled out is quite obvious.”