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'Probably do with some boxing lessons': Canterbury coach says Burton lucky

(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

Canterbury interim coach Mick Potter says Bulldogs five-eighth Matt Burton can consider himself lucky not to be suspended for this weekend’s clash with South Sydney.

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Burton came to blows early in the second half with Dane Gagai in the State of Origin decider on Wednesday when he was knocked to the ground sparking a punch-up between the two.

Referee Ashley Klein sent both to the sin bin but the NRL announced after the game neither would be suspended for this weekend’s club fixtures.

The pair were fined 23 per cent of their match fee, following changes to the NRL’s judiciary code this season aimed at minimising suspensions incurred from representative games.

Potter said the pair were lucky to escape further sanction post-match.

“I think so,” he said. “Both of them could probably do with some boxing lessons.

“I think both of them were trying to defend themselves. The 10 minutes in the bin took the heat out of that moment.”

Potter suggested Burton may have been unlucky to have copped the same punishment as Gagai, who instigated the fight and ensuing melee between the sides.

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“I thought (Burton) did cop the rough end of the pineapple there,” he said.

“There probably could have been some other action taken on other people.”

Potter said facing a resurgent South Sydney at Accor Stadium would be one of the Bulldogs’ biggest challenges of the season.

The Rabbitohs have well and truly hit their stride since the return of fullback Latrell Mitchell in round 16, piling on 70 points in two wins and consolidating their spot above the mid-ladder logjam.

“(Mitchell) is awesome, him with Cody Walker and Lachlan Ilias there,” Potter said.

“I’m expecting Damien Cook to back up (from Origin). There are so many threats in that team.

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“They seem to strip numbers from the opposition teams, they roll forward and they’ve got plenty of momentum with their big forwards.

“It’s going to be a challenge for us to stop them.”

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

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