I've taken a few snaps from the original hit and the slow mos - one does show Prior a short way away from Richardson as the ball leaves his foot and you could make a case for Prior being able to pull out of the tackle or at least soften it. You can also see Richardson preparing to kick well before Prior sets off and Prior does set off in a hurry.
However, Prior does dip his head and shoulders to make the tackle so that he doesn't go high and indeed he doesn't go anywhere near Richardson's head albeit, Richardson's head does rock back. Maybe in his technique to go low, he doesn't actually see the ball released!
Interestingly the Ref waves Smith's protests away and on the replay Clarke of all people comments 'there's nothing wrong with that tackle from Prior'.
All in all very fine margins. The ban was no doubt extended to two because of previous offences.

This weeks lottery numbers according to Paul Cullen are:……

The Tompkins one getting nothing is bizarre.
We got off lightly at least ( in context of previous)

i wonder if any saints players will be cited for their agressive body language to the ref after the Farrell try

Tomkins minimum 1 game for that incident.
Agree and have said before myself that we need to put a case to the RL comparing the bans to the ones we get against those other teams get.

Feel like we got done because Fages went off with a head assessment. Banning due to the result of the injury rather than the incident itself.