So 1 game ban for a dangerous tackle
What a joke . Wigan let off again

rl2 match banrl

1 match ban

The silence on these tackles IS deafening.

Though I'm not surprised in the slightest. (Wasn't a cannonball tackle, more dangerous contact)

Big team in big game round the corner gets ban reduced. It would be naive to think we haven't benifitted from this ludicrous system in the past though.

Makes Hick's bottlejob on the descision all the worse.

Well it's not allowed but a ruthless coach might think it's worth the risk to take out an opposition key player early in the game.

yes hicks had two gig decisions in the game and got both badly wrong. yet here is getting a big, in the context of 4 home games, game tonight

I thought it was wrong to ignore the tackle, but othe than that I thought Hicks had an excellent game, and for me has been by far the best referee over the last twelve months.

On the disciplinary, yet again a Wigan player appeals and gets his ban reduced. This is a regular occurance that has set a dangerous precedence. Wigan exploit this to the hilt continuously.

Who said they were allowed? He got a ban which clearly says they aren't allowed.

You might consider the ban not long enough but that is a different debate.

Ah, didn't see that it had been reduced. Apologies.

Yeah I agree on this. Would scrap it and make all decisions final or at least limit the amount of times a team could appeal a bit like when you've used your EGP you can't use it again.

Agree with that, maybe not the last 12 months but probably for this season.

I just think he wimped out a bit on 2 of the 3 big incidents in the game with the Tautai tackle and Charnley grabbing him. He could've easily so binned Charnley and nobody would complain and, whilst I have a lot of sympathy for refs having to judge everything in real time with 1 look, the Tautai tackle wasn't obscured from view in any way so he should've dealt with it. However he didn't wimp out when Charnley's play acting at the play ball went to Tomkins-like levels and rightly gave the penalty, so it shows he can do it, just that like many referees they seem very very reluctant to make big decisions and prefer to leave it to the disciplinary.

The disciplinary decision is daft though. Earlier in the season that kind of tackle was a 4 match ban. I'm willing to bet if Cuthbertson had gone off and then been assessed to have a serious injury then the ban would've been longer.
A 1 match ban is really no kind of disincentive for those type of tackles.

It's a shocking decision. Like someone else said, a 1 game ban for that kind of tackle is no deterant. What will they do the next time someone does one of those? They banned the shoulder charge (which in my view was an over reaction) bit continue to let these tackles happen!! I really find it hard to take the RFL seriously as an organisation

It is if you play for Wigan.

Think they need to look at who is representing on the panel. Maybe time to move away from some ex players, and replace it with a player who's career has been ended by foul play, an ex referee, and also maybe someone with a legal head, such as a solicitor.

This way, the bias could be negated, and foul play could be punished accordignly

thing is, and hicks was doing ok, referees are judged on getting big decisions right. he had two to make and got both badly wrong. did he miss them, did he ignore them because he didn't have the balls to deal with them? either way it was very poor officiating

If one of those was the Charnley one, then to be honest I don't think he bottled that one. I don't think in the heat of the game is the right time for anyone to make a decision on intentional contact with the ref. It hasn't happened like that before, and I think looking afterwards is the right way with that sort of incident.