Quote: Saddened! "I definitely think it's worth a conversation about it. It does seem far too harsh a charge, I agree with that and I'd be crying for leniency if it were a Saints player again, of course I would. But all I'm saying is they've clearly set the precedent for it with the previous bans. There is no difference between this one and the others. They were all highly likely to be uninjured, but the RFL said it isn't up to the players to make that call, hence the bans. It's such a tough one this, in hindsight, Mata'utia is fine, so it appears to be a ban for almost nothing. Had Mata'utia had a serious injury, Vaughan wouldn't have known. That's my point, do you get where that's coming from? When Vaughan takes hold of him he's still on the floor, lay on his side, all he's done is roll over. Walmsley sat up and tried to get up twice when he had a broken neck. If he had the ball and it was the last minute, he could end up in a far worse spot than he was if he was then pulled over. We can't just punish these if there is a serious injury and not if there isn't. It really is on the players to not touch them. It'd be great if the players didn't feign injury to get penalties and waste time too, but that's unfortunately present in all non-combat sports these days.'"
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.
