Quote: Mild Rover "One possible curiosity about match bans now...
Albert Kelly got a 2 game playing in the reserves which applied to SL.
Do SL bans apply to the other comps? And does this mean that you spend your penalty by not playing in those lower tier matches?
Taken to a hypothetical extreme, could an academy-eligible player pick up a 3 game ban from a Friday SL game, miss an academy game, reserves game and a game with a dual-reg partner and be back for SL the Sunday of the following week? The dual reg one feels unlikely, but the others not so much.
The reserves is the important one, and clubs would soon be making sure those fixtures fall between the disciplinary and next SL game.
Maybe it’d make sense to ban players for periods of time, rather than for games.'"
I think it's only one game a week. Reserves games and academy games do count towards bans but only if there is no first team game that week.
I have been saying for a while that to avoid any confusion/loopholes the bans should be timed rather than number of games. For example, Satae committed his offence on the weekend ending 9th Feb so he can't play any rugby until after 1st March.