Souths to fight Wighton’s ‘head clash’ ban as stars now sidelined for 200 matches

South Sydney will risk a four-match ban by challenging Jack Wighton’s hit on Cronulla’s Toby Rudolf at the NRL judiciary, with the club privately arguing his contact was little more than a head clash.

Wighton’s contact was deemed a grade 2 shoulder charge on Sunday for the shot that saw him sin-binned in Saturday night’s loss to the Sharks.

The veteran five-eighth will challenge his suspension on Tuesday night having sought legal counsel from judiciary regular Nick Ghabar.

Wighton’s proposed suspension is exacerbated by a 2023 hit on Jackson Hastings counting as a similar previous incident.

Should the Rabbitohs challenge fail, Wighton would be rubbed out for four weeks, having initially been served a three-week ban by the match review committee.

Rabbitohs officials are privately stunned at the match review committee’s findings, and pointed to a try-saving effort by Brisbane’s Reece Walsh on Friday night, in which he appeared to make contact with Josh Addo-Carr’s head in cover defence.

Parramatta challenged Walsh’s hit on Addo-Carr as head contact from a shoulder charge, though the NRL Bunker dismissed the Eels claims.

Rudolf will miss Cronulla’s next game against North Queensland after failing a subsequent HIA from the head contact with Wighton.

Raiders five-eighth Ethan Strange was the most notable charge from Sunday’s games, as his shot on Newcastle’s Dominic Young was deemed a grade one shoulder charge. Strange will be free to play for Canberra though with a $3000 fine and early guilty plea.

On-field referee Belinda Sharpe acknowledged Wighton’s “contact is head-on-head but it’s a shoulder charge with no attempt to wrap (your arms),” as she sent him to the sin bin.

Souths can ill-afford to lose Wighton given prop Junior Tatola was the latest big name facing a stint on the sidelines after he dislocated his shoulder on Saturday. He is considered unlikely to play again this year.

Tatola joins a list of injuries that has now seen top-line South Sydney players sidelined for more than a combined 200 weeks this season.

Even before Wighton’s potential suspension and Tatola’s injury the Rabbitohs had no fewer than 12 first-grade squad members sidelined on Saturday.

Skipper Cameron Murray is yet to play this campaign after rupturing his Achilles in the pre-season. He has been joined in the casualty ward by Latrell Mitchell (quadriceps), Cody Walker (hamstring), Keaon Koloamatangi (knee), Campbell Graham (back), Brandon Smith (knee), Davvy Moale (wrist), Mikaele Ravalawa (pectoral), Bayleigh Bentley-Hape (groin) and Jayden Sullivan (leg).

Jamie Humphreys and Peter Mamouzelos also missed the Cronulla game after suffering category-one head knocks in the 30-10 loss to Penrith a week earlier.

The loss of Tatola, a veteran of 158 NRL games and eight Tests for Tonga, will be especially problematic, given the absence of fellow big men Moale and Koloamatangi.

The Rabbitohs have won only two of their past 14 games after a bright start to 2025 that featured four wins in the first five weeks. Saturday’s eighth consecutive defeat equalled the longest losing streak of Bennett’s illustrious coaching career.

That has allowed Gold Coast, who scored a boilover win in Auckland on Saturday, to climb out of the competition cellar and leapfrog Souths, though the Rabbitohs still have a bye in hand.

Nonetheless, with five games remaining, the Rabbitohs are in danger of collecting their first wooden spoon since 2006 and the first of Bennett’s illustrious career.

The play the Titans in two weeks at CBus Super Stadium in what shapes as a loser-takes-all “spoon bowl”.

A terse Bennett clearly had no intention of discussing his team’s position on the ladder at the post-match press conference on Saturday.

“I knew someone would ask that question,” he said.

“I’m not answering it.”

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