Following on from McGuire's one match ban which is likely to be served by him missing the Boxing Day friendly, we are now likely to see Westwood serving his possible 2-match ban by sitting out the England friendly vs Italy & England's opening World cup match.
In neither instance does it seem to me that justice has been meted out.
Neither club side for whom the miscreant was playing has been penalised in a meaningful manner.
I'm sure that this has been debated before but should the penalty not be imposed by making the guilty players miss his club's first team cup, league or play-off matches?

It should count in the competition where the suspension was incurred, otherwise it is a joke.

But even better, and here is a novel idea, why not punish it in the game where the offence took place. It does require referees to have a bit of backbone. Radical I know, but it might just catch on.

Being able to serve a ban in friendlies is simply farcical.

I seem to remember a Hull player managed to serve a two match ban during the Floodlit 9's.

It's a farce. More incidents need to be dealt with on field, report is a safety net. The sin bin should be utilised alot more for this type of foul play. As it is even the sin bin seems rare and only seems to be used when theres been too much lying on. Utilising the sinbin you penalise the defender and the team there and then and you don't destroy the game.

But failing all that, at least when you're going through the disciplinary procedure, apply some common f*cking sense.

Bans for friendlies, being utilised in a seperate competition to where the incident occured.....what clueless monkey dreamt this up? Who's in charge of this?

"On report" is a meaningless sop to baying fans which gives the referee a way of making no decision while appearing to do something. Any incident can be reviewed by the judiciary, so the whole thing is a sham. This is not news.

Serving bans in friendlies is silly. Competitive internationals should count though. Losing out on a cap, and more if your replacement does well, is punishment for the individual.

I can recall Barrie McDermott receiving a five game ban for a brawl in a pre season friendly against York in 1998
<i think>

Shame he ran out of friendly games to clear his ban

It just seems like the whole system wants to get away with doing as little as possible, while appearing to the public to be doing something.

They are pussies.

Look at the fact they've charged him with a grade b offence. Of which the definitions for punching are :

- reaction to opponent/ lashing out
- self defence
- one on one, minor

Westwoods was none of those. Not self defence, no reaction as green did nothing and you could hardly call it minor when green needed oxygen to bring him round and had it not been a grand final it would probbaly have taken him out of the game.

They're a bunch of spinless, gutless morons.

Didn't he serve some of one of his bans by being loaned out to Bramley ?

Westwoods could also fall under another category, i found this on the RFL website:

[uWhen tackling or attempting to tackle makes contact with head or neck of an opponent[/u

[iA-B Careless - flat hand off balance
A-B Careless -ball carrier dips
A-B Careless - stepped and reaching
A-B Careless - initial contact with ball or chest
A-B Careless - second tackler in - wrapping tackle up
Reckless
B-C Reckless - tackler in control
B-C Reckless - tried to tackle but reckless about outcome
Intentional
D-F Intentional - clenched fist - intent to make contact with head[/i

How is westwood's not the bottom one, grade D-F? Is that too may games for the RFL to give him? afterall they wouldn't want him to miss too much world cup would they?

What's his record like this season?

[iYay! Let's charge him with a grade b, he can early guilty plea and get no games. We look like we've done something, but he won't miss any games...easy option WIN WIN![/i

Never got that, the tackler goes to make a legal tackle, the ball carrier dips into it at the last, catching his head, tackler is careless.

What I don't get is why we aren't using video technology in these instances. It was clear what had happened on the field and the video ref could have made the call. We use the video ref for foul play in the act of scoring, for drop out decisions and 40-20s why can't we use them for foul play? It wouldn't take long to look at the incident. Besides the clock was stopped due to the injury and it's very rare a rugby player stays down when not injured

Sort of got me thinking, if I was in charge of a major TV company wouldn't it benefit me if the match wasn't spoiled by a sending off and possible one sided match?

Sort of got me thinking, if I were a major sporting governing body in thrall to a major TV company wouldn't it be convenient if we were to allow an offending player to say on the pitch after a possible sending off offence so that we didn't endanger our product?

Sort of got me thinking, wouldn't it be better for all concerned if the TV matches could stay as competitive as possible for as long as possible and the authorities could be seen to be dealing out justice after the event?

Just thinking out loud . . . . .

Friendlies should never count in the Match bans; what a ridiculous rule!

Why should a player be allowed to partake in a red-card/ban offence and stay on the pitch, thus giving the offending team an advantage (Especially if the attack has meant a player goes off injured), for that team to then be allowed to lose nothing in the competition? If it were feasible in any way, I'd argue the ban should be served in the next game against the team they wronged, though I recognise that wouldn't be easy to organise.

Of course, referee's could use the video referee and their backbone to award red cards when needed, but we all know that won't happen any time soon.

I've totally bought into that conspiracy theory.

Westwood "I didn't know that I had punched him".

Yep that sounds like a good enough excuse.

I've said for ages the Disciplinary system in SL and those that enforce it are totally inept.
They started an "Ask the Ref" this year via twitter but its got to the stage where their reply is 99% we were right followed by some waffling or using the disciplinary review system to back up their claims they got the call right!
There are far too many "grey areas" or as i like to call them "get out clauses2 that protect blatant pooor calls.
Using Saturdays incident as an example EVERYONE watching saw what Braindead did from every angle and whilst i can accept that maybe Silverw-@nk was un-sighted the call made was total bollox its a straight red irrespective of the game ,venue ,t.v or whatever.
Then the Charge again just highlights the joke of a system we have in SL the RFL have to get a grip on it (after they've finsihed trying to fight off the SL clubs revolution).
There are situations that are 50/50 and certain considerations need to be applied ie intent ,tackled player falling etc etc but events like Saturday are crystal clear its time that stuff like that is stamped out and those involved hammered irrespective of past history ,whether they are Sky darlings etc.
Also this year the grapple tackle has been ignored in most games and since they dis-continued an automatic sin bin for hitting a kicker late i think thats creeping back into games.

It's plausible that he's lost track of the list of people he's whacked.

Because what if it was innocent? you send a player off in a grand final and then when it gets to a disciplinary they ask the questions, look the guy in the eye, look at the recordings, take into account other statements, and then find him not guilty.

If that had not been Westwood on Saturday, and say was Higham instead, there is no way I would have put that down as an intentional punch. He wasn't even looking at the guy. But it wasn't Higham it was Westwood, and he has a reputation and a history of it. But that is for a disciplinary to decide, not the video ref. I don't believe Silverwood would have sent him off had he seen it either.

Watch the BBC coverage and in particular the first replay, which can be found on that well known video sharing site.

Westwood clearly cocks his arm back, clenches his fist and swings.

If he isn't trying to punch Blake Green in the head, there's absolutely no reason for his fist to be clenched or for his arm to make the movement that it did.

That said, as a single punch I can see why it was graded "minor". The injury suffered does not come into the grading, but is taken into account as an aggravating factor by the disciplinary when setting the sentence, and can enable them to move outside the recommended sentence for that grade.

I watched it a few times on iPlayer. It looks deliberate to me but I'm not 100% sure. His fist is clenched, and he is facing in the direction of green suggests it is deliberate. However, when playing it is common to go in with that sort of arm movement around the top to secure the ball and complete the tackle.

For me I think its a cheap shot, and one that should probably get a ban, but I wouldn't expect it to have been given a red card. The action looks legitimate in real time, and the ref was probably unsighted.

If he is found guilty I think him being able to serve a ban in a friendly is stupid, just like McGuire

Very few, if any, saw the incident initially. The game had gone on a couple of tackles so the ref had little choice. A straight red card? At one time the ref would have indicated a punch & sent the offender back 10m with nothing more than a thumb pointing over the shoulder. The OTT hysteria & language on this thread belongs on the Wigan board.

I'd like to see the Rhinos make a stand on this issue & not allow McGuire to serve his ban in a friendly or pre-season game but make him sit out the first regular season game in 2014.

Sure, the arm movement is/was not unusual, but surely if he was really intending to"secure the ball and complete the tackle" he would have been better served to attempt it with a full hand and fingers rather than his knuckle ends?

. . . . . unless he is as daft as he looks.

It looked fairly deliberate to me on the slow-mo, and I think it merited a red card for the position its target was in at the time.

I don't know if injury severity should be an issue, given that I am assred by some Cherry and White visitors that in the semi Blake Green lay on the floor for ages after Danny McGuire's brutal assault on his shoulder becasue "he was in shock after finding himself in an unexpected position." So the lad is clearly a bit fragile for an RL player (it's all relative, I'd have been vapourised by the initial tackle on both occasions...).

I am surprised people think everyone in the ground saw it. At the time I didn't spot it, and even on the highlights program when I was looking for it it wasn't that easy to spot. I don't really want to see the video ref sticking his beak into stuff like that. Slippery slope that leads to very stop-start matches, and the game being reffed from a cupboard.

I'm not sure anyone could be that daft.

In terms of his fist, I agree with you. That tips it to deliberate to me, but its not unusual for people to hit contact with fists clenched