All hip drops are accidents, they are trying to make a tackle, not land on someone's legs but the fact is it has been outlawed and the onus has been put on the defender to not do it.
I don't think it was a hip drop. Landing on someone's leg doesn't make it a hip drop.
It's the NRL going to extremes with everything, like they have done for ages.
- One player (Soward) kicks the ball dead from long kicks for one season, to try and negate some of the greatest fullbacks of the past 25 years (Slater, Inglis, Minichiello)? Let's make it a 7 tackle set if you drop the ball when trying to score a try.
- Players have their legs taken out from them in the air when attempting a catch, causing them to fall in a dangerous position? Let's penalise a bloke for tackling an upright player 0.25 seconds before his feet touch the ground.
- Players are deliberately giving away penalties to slow the ruck down? Let's make it set restarts instead, even if they're doing it deliberately on their own line, and deny teams a chance to take the 2 points.
- There are some occasions where the ref has given a try but a replay after shows he knocked it on? Let's award tries even if the ref isn't sure, and we'll take it back off them if a replay later shows an indiscretion. Screw the fans and their celebrations.
- There's a new dangerous technique, where an attacker has multiple defenders on him, and one of them grabs him around the hip/waist, and drops all his weight on the back of his legs to bring him down? Let's call any tackle where a player lands on their legs a hip drop.
It's madness.