Rugby league legend Brad Fittler believes Newcastle forward Beau Scott had no right in hitting North Queensland’s star pivot Johnathan Thurston after he had released the ball.

“When a ball player takes the ball to the line, when he gets rid of it at the right time you don’t have a right just to break his ribs. That means if he has done that at the right time then he has beat you,” Fittler told sportsfan.com.au.

“It’s dangerous, it looks bad and discourages smaller talented people, because the idea is to put them on the deck so they can’t get up and hurt you.

“That’s got to get wiped out of the game. That discourages any talented fleet-footed kid from being a halfback having your ribs broken every week.”

Fittler himself was famously “taken out” by New Zealand forward Richard Villisanti in the 2002 grand final. Fittler quickly recovered, kicking a 40/20 and leading the Sydney Roosters to victory.

“Johnathan Thurston, when he passed that ball, he beat Beau Scott. He passed it early enough for Beau Scott to have say ‘well I’ll have to pull out of this tackle’, but he didn’t,” Fittler continued.

“We don’t have to protect our good players, because our good players wouldn’t want that anyway. And you can’t protect anyone. The game is a game and the rules are the rules. And from what I saw in that late hit, they broke the rules.”