If player's welfare is paramount - potential solution - any player getting up slowly in the last 5 minues of a game - clock stops - instant substitution and that player stood down for 11 days as with a grade 1 concussion in Oz. Might cut out the cheat's charter bit. I suppose one caveat - stand down not compulsory if foul play caused the 'injury' and a doctor passes the player fit. Apart from that no appeals, no ifs, no buts, no fetching your Philadelphia lawyers with some bizarre argument about the angle of flexion of the opponent's arm.... Otherwise we're getting into the ridiculous ends of games we see in NFL where a team winning can just keep 'taking the knee' to see out the clock.

I totally understand the not pulling up a potentially injured player and thought it was stupid of Vaughan at the time but understandable in the context of the game.
I do think though that a player pretending to be injured who is pulled at should get the same ban as the “puller”. That would be the fairest solution.
No doubt Saints would get in a psychiatrist to claim Matautia was suffering from PTSD rather than a physical injury but that is detail, it may work as a deterrent in both sides

https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/paul-vau ... dia-82241/

https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/paul-vau ... dia-82241/

Not surprised they are baffled by it. I don't really give a monkeys trump about what bans have been given out before ... perhaps they were wrong too. This is pathetic. I see holding down, twisting of legs, pushing heads into the ground after a tackle but this is a very gentle pull to get him to get on with the game.

The DC is making the game a laughing stock. The RFL needs to get a grip of them.

Helping an opposition player to regain his feet is a common occurrence after the ball has gone dead.

Will we now see the Disciplinary Committee banning players for this too?

We will be watching tick-and-pass rugby soon, the way the game is going.

Good observation.

The problem with the DC is that they show zero common sense or flexibility when dealing with individual cases.

It's quite obvious to everyone looking at the Vaughan incident what is going on - Player is winding down the final seconds of a close game, opponent light heartedly gives him a friendly tug to tell him to get up. Witness the smile on Vaughan's face and you know this is almost banter between the two.

Now this is totally different from what the law was set up for - If Vaughan had aggressively grabbed an opponent lay prone on the floor then that would be totally different to what actually happened and would deserve a punishment. But it's blindingly obvious this incident isn't that, so the DC should use common sense and look at the obvious context of individual incidents and don't just apply a single blanket judgement, which is what is presently happening.

The game is run by stupid people

You can't ban someone for a slow play the ball in the 79th minute of a professional RL game

He'd run 162 metres with the ball by that point and done 20 tackles. He played it like Konrad Hurrell does in the 4th minute after his first run. The refs could just deal with it by stopping the clock if they think it's being overly slow and if there is a 'fake' injury and they stay down, use the green card. That's what it's for.

As daft as this all seems, the solution to it is players not touching the ball carrier. The bans have to stay until players understand that. What they can't do is let Vaughan off (Because he was time wasting) then ban the next fool who does it when the player turns out to have had a serious injury.

The thing is Matautia never looked injured and everyone including the officials just saw that tired looking slow play the ball. However the Disciplinary just see things completely differently.

We had 2 season ending injuries by cannon ball looking reckless tackles on Walmsley and Passi by Asiati and the disciplinary see nothing and no charge zero bans

We have Vaughan with a slight pull on Matautis shirt who at that point was getting on his feet in a tired manner, disciplinary see different and a 4-6 match ban.

Crazzzzzzzzzzzzyyyyyyy