Luaki was getting ready for collision, front foot forward, lean forward, ie downwards then brace, thus taking force on your front foot with your whole body weight behind.

You dont stand up straight knowing that with straight legs and back you will get put on your backside, you brace, he was leaning into hit nicklas, he was getting his body perfectly positioned as coached from the age of 8 upwards.

No excuses for westerman and will rightly cop a 2.

I think it's clear that he knows we're on the bare bones with injuries as he's one of them, and shouldn't have played. Must have put his hand up to try and help the team, but unfortunately it looked like the wrong decision last night.

for a big man Luaki certainly cannot take a hit to the head like some of the other players do

missed timed/careless by Westerman nothing malicious

one with an arm on a player in the process of bending down, one a swing with a fist, from the side and straight into the face.

I just hope it hasn`t affected Hame`s looks.

Are we banning tackling with the arms now too then? We may as well give up.

Westerman looked to have all the potential in the world when he first came onto the scene at Cas but has gone backwards ever since.

The bans will get longer, hopefully players will change their approach before someone gets seriously injured.

Hits to the head happen in a contact sport. People get kicked in the head in football, should they ban kicking?

Complete over reaction. Yes, punish the ones that DO hit the head, but FFS don't ban them.

Its a contact sport and people will inevitably get hurt. I personally like to see players use the shoulder, though obviously not to the head. The problem arises when a player bends low or a small player like burrow comes at you. It was a bit like Moa's where the french player came in low and got sparked out.

The shoulder charge is a big risk play, if you get it wrong you can seriously hurt someone and you deserve a ban.

In football a player can get penalised for putting his head in a dangerous position, it's a different sport.

He made [idirect[/i contact to the head. Nobody is on about banning anything. If you're going to tackle like that, don't make contact with the head, pretty simple really.

So how does not making contact with the shoulder make it worse? If EVERY tackle which hits the head results in a ban then fine, but does anyone see that happening?

Shoulder charges aren't illegal.

If the boot was on the other foot and Lauaki had made that tackle on Westerman, our fans would have gone mental.

Disappointed all the replays where in slow motion, would have liked to have seen it again at full speed.
Westy did lift his arm slightly which was silly on his part but I'm not a fan of banning players for making contact with the head if it isn't deliberate.
If someone try's to knock a players head off with a straight or swinging arm then they deserve to be punished.
However our sport is played at a fast pace & like it or not players tackle with shoulders & every now & then accidents will happen.
If there is no intent to harm I dont think the player should be banned.
On another note I think Westy's defence in the last couple of rounds has been very poor. Dobbo picked him out twice in the derby & last night I thought he was to blame for the first two tries. Although I do know he's injured