'Blatant': Daly Cherry-Evans under fire over contentious act

Sam Thaiday has dispelled any thoughts that Queenslanders stand by their own after accusing Manly and Maroons Origin captain Daly Cherry-Evans (DCE) of being a serial diver.

Thaiday - a former Queensland teammate of Cherry-Evans' - was incensed with the actions of the Manly halfback during the Sea Eagles' 20-18 win over the Brisbane Broncos in round five.

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DCE was at the centre of one of the game's most controversial moments when the Bunker ruled that he was obstructed before Darius Boyd looked to have crossed for a try to extend Brisbane's lead.

The Broncos' four-pointer was chalked off when the video officials ruled that decoy runner Corey Oates had illegally taken out the Manly skipper in the lead-up.

However, commentators and plenty of disgruntled fans argued that Cherry-Evans made the most of Oates' presence by exaggerating the contact and milking a penalty.

Thaiday hit out at DCE for taking a dive to win a penalty for his side, accusing the halfback of having a history of similar underhanded tactics.

"DCE, congratulations, you have won the Academy Award for the best dive so far in the 2020 season," Thaiday said on Fox Sports program 'QLDER' on Tuesday night.

"Corey Oates playing back-row kind of ran the wrong line. By the letter of the law, yes, Corey Oates did the wrong thing but DCE, you could see that was a blatant dive.

"If you go back and look at DCE's history, there's a lot of clips out there with him diving."

Thaiday was no doubt referencing the last time DCE was accused of diving, which coincidentally happened to be against the former Origin forward's Broncos side in 2017.

Wayne Bennett was the Brisbane coach at the time and he hit out at officials for ruling that Thaiday had obstructed Cherry-Evans in the lead-up to the 79th minute 'no try'.

"You can't just get tapped like he did and fall over backwards - it was obviously deliberate," Bennett said.

"He realised he was gone, that he had made the wrong decision defensively.

"I'm not critical of him (Cherry-Evans) but the point is we've got officials in the game and administrators have got to make decisions and say, 'That's not acceptable'."

Obstruction debate reignited in NRL

The obstruction rule has come under fire this week, with Phil Gould insisting in a heated debate with Paul Gallen that it needed to be fixed.

The veteran commentator was particularly aggrieved with a pair of decisions in the Dragons’ drought-breaking win over the Sharks, where two tries were chalked off because of obstruction.

“The rules are wrong. Whoever came up with that should be locked away and never seen again. They should rot in jail," Gould fumed.

“What person ever came up with a rule that I must run at his inside shoulder? How stupid.

“Nowhere in history has there been a rule where I can run when I run the ball. And if I don’t get the ball it’s up to you to decide what to do about it. That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.

“That was done to save the referees from embarrassment or because they didn’t understand the rules. They wanted a black and white interpretation that could be ruled the same way every time.

"The problem is, we’ll see that happen 50 times in a game and because no try is scored, nothing is ever done about it.”