Andrew Johns lets rip at Taane Milne's 'woeful' act on Cameron Munster as NRL fans rage

NRL legends Andrew Johns and Cameron Smith have let rip at Rabbitohs winger Taane Milne for a shocking cannonball tackle as his team were humiliated in a 54-20 loss. Cameron Munster was at his scintillating best on ANZAC Day as he scored a try and set-up four more in a masterful display from the Maroons five-eighth.

Unfortunately, the game was marred after Rabbitohs winger Milne took out his frustration in a horror moment in the final minute against the Storm. With one tackle left in the humiliating 34-point thrashing, Munster took the ball up for a tackle as the players were winding down having accepted it was the end of the game.

Although Milne took out his frustration on Munster and charged in as the third man and chopped down his legs at the knee. Munster went down in pain, as his Storm teammates fumed. A scuffle broke out as the Storm players tried to get at Milne for the ugly shot. Fortunately Munster emerged without serious injury from the tackle.

“This is going to finish in a nasty fashion,” Dane Ginnane said on Fox Sports commentary. “Milne saw a chance to put a shot down low and he took it... That is ugly.”

And NRL icon and commentator Johns was left seething at the tackle from the Rabbitohs winger and claimed it could have left Munster with a career-threatening injury if things had gone wrong. "This is absolutely ridiculous ... this is how players break their legs or do their knees," Johns said in Channel Nine commentary. "I saw one of these years ago ... it pretty much did every ligament in his knee.

"Milne has gone head first - he's not even looking at the target. So dangerous. He only had one intention, to hurt Cameron Munster." And he wasn't the only legend of the game that was infuriated at the incident. Johnathan Thurston partnered Munster for the Maroons for many years and claimed this sort of tackle on his former teammate needed to be ruled out of the game completely.

"We don't need this in the game - this is purely trying to hurt players," he added. "I think the NRL need to come down hard on this because it was a dumb play and he has put his team under pressure now. They already have seven or eight players on the sidelines, and now there is an opportunity for him to be on the sidelines."

Cameron Smith calls out Taane Milne tackle

Cameron Smith played with Munster at the Storm and labelled the incident as "foolish". "I think there were three seconds left on the clock. He was in a well-beaten side ... that is pure frustration." And the NRL legends were not as harsh as the fans. Viewers were seething at the last second tackle and many claimed Milne would be facing serious time on the sidelines.

Cameron Munster dazzles as Rabbitohs fall flat

Fortunately for Munster, he isn't set to miss any more weeks after the incident. Munster missed the first four rounds with a groin issue, but has bounced back and proven why he is the best five-eighth in the game. He finished the night crossing for his own try in the 66th minute to snuff out Souths' late challenge.

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"It's very disappointing, especially with the two weeks lead-in that we've had and the detail in how we wanted to play, especially defensively," Demetriou said after the game. "It's just a myriad of errors defensively ...around our ruck, around our decision on our edges, we're just not nailing them when the pressure is on. You see periods where the team looks like the team we're capable of being but we need to buy in to doing it for longer periods."

Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy labelled his team's effort as the best of the season. "We played really well the first half and I thought we defended well," he said. "The first 20 minutes of the second half we probably took our foot off a little bit but I thought we finished really strongly - there was plenty of energy and plenty of intent so I'm really happy."