Legendary coach Phil Gould has torn the NRL’s Match Review Committee to shreds after both Viliame Kikau and Cameron Smith were charged over the weekend.

Kikau is set to miss Penrith’s preliminary final after a innocuous tackle on rival Jared Waerea-Hargreaves on Friday night.

“I can’t see why either of them have been charged. This, again, is really pedantic. It’s stupid,” Gould said on Channel Nine’s 100% Footy.

“It’s not just that their legs are above the horizontal, it’s got to be most likely that the first point of contact for the man with the ball has got to be head or neck on the ground.

“In neither of those instances could you argue that the first point of contact from the man with the ball was going to be head or neck on the ground. It wasn’t. They were both virtually on the ground.

“We can’t be rubbing people out for that. Whoever is in charge of the match review committee, if that’s his example of a throw tackle, then he needs to be rubbed out.

“That is disgraceful that we are charging a player with a dangerous tackle for that stuff there. That is utterly ridiculous.”