Lachie Miller speaks out after 'never-before-seen' blunder stuns NRL

Newcastle fullback Lachie Miller admits he lost his bearings completely during a horror moment in Saturday's thrilling draw with Manly in Mudgee. Nothing could seperate the Knights and Sea Eagles after 80 minutes and two halves of golden point extra time, with both teams settling for a point after a pulsating 32-32 draw in round five of the NRL.

Manly second rower Haumole Olakau’atu crossed for the opening try of the game after slicing through the Newcastle defence and standing up Miller, who inexplicably let the rampaging forward fall over the line, rather than attempting to tackle him. Olakau’atu had Tom Trbojevic in support but didn't need to use him as Miller backed away into his own in-goal area to gift the Sea Eagles the easiest of tries.

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The bizarre moment left viewers perplexed, with many commenting that they had never seen anything like it before in the NRL. Speaking on Fox League, Miller all but admitted that he got the tryline mistaken for the 10 metre line and thought the Manly player had mistakenly gone to ground when he scored the try.

“I thought he’d stuffed up to be honest, I thought this bloke has just put it down 10 metres short,” Miller said. "And then I looked around and thought, ‘oh, this is not good’.”

Miller - who aside from the blunder was one of Newcastle's best - could at least see the funny side of it after the game. When asked by Eels great Nathan Hindmarsh what he was thinking, the former Olympian and rugby 7s star replied: "I’ve got no idea".

Former NRL star Matty Johns joked that Miller was campaigning for a new rule to be brought in where fullbacks don't have to tackle backrowers. “You want to bring in a new rule I know, that if a backrower makes a break you don’t have to tackle him, you can just let him score," Johns said. “I spoke to Peter V’landys and he obviously was considering it.”

Roosters legend Bryan Fletcher added: “Have you seen the size of Olakau’atu? I wouldn’t want to tackle him either." Miller was happy to join in the joke by saying: “If you actually watch it, I am actually letting him know where to score just in case he didn’t actually know."

Fortunately for Miller, the incident didn't prove too costly as the Knights bounced back from a 10-0 deficit early on to lead against Manly in a sea-sawing contest that saw numerous lead changes.

Manly had fought back when trailing 28-16 mid-way through the second half while Newcastle battled hard after their sluggish opening. When Dominic Young scored his fourth try of the game two minutes from time it gave Miller the chance to kick the Knights home, but he pulled his conversion to the left of the posts.

Jackson Hastings had a chance to win it at the death but his 50-metre drop goal attempt at the end of the second golden point half drifted agonisingly right of the posts. Manly captain Daly Cherry-Evans also missed two drop-goal chances in golden point, having passed up the chance to take two more when running against the wind in the first period of extra time.

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Young scored the pick of Saturday's 12 tries earlier in the second half when he skipped down the right edge inside his half and after passes between Miller, Hastings and Tyson Frizell, completed a stunning hat-trick. Manly responded with conviction, first through Kelma Tuilagi then Kaeo Weekes before Reuben Garrick's diving finish put the hosts up four with 10 minutes remaining.

"I'm disappointed but as I said to the team, at 10-nil down had you said we're going to walk away at 32-all and get Cherry-Evans to pull out three times from a field goal with someone pressuring him, I'll take that," Newcastle coach Adam O'Brien said after the game.

The Knights lost Tyson Gamble to concussion and he will miss their next game against the Warriors after it was assessed as category one. Manly's undefeated record in Mudgee remains intact with the draw while the Knights are also undefeated from their two games in the regional NSW town.

"Probably lucky to get a point in the end," Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold admitted afterwards. "We kept fighting but there were a whole heap of things we were a little bit off with."

Tom Trbojevic topped Manly's run metres with 232 and two try-assists, while Miller had two assists of his own as he too cracked 200 metres for the Knights along with Young. Manly's next match is at the home of two-time defending premiers Penrith on Saturday, while the Knights entertain the Warriors on Sunday evening.

with AAP

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