Quote ="tvoc"That's not really the point. It's not a player thing or a club thing but it should be a video review panel thing.
A player was injured and had to leave the field shortly after and took no effective further part in the game after the challenge.
It was also in a high-profile televised game which has been used as additional justification to look at incidents such as these in the past.
It's precisely the type of incident the panel should be looking for and have done so in the past. If you're going to examine crusher type tackles and players limbs/joints being extended and cannonball challenges that don't cause injury how can you ignore a shoulder charge (now apparently illegal) aimed at an unprotected area that contains vital organs.
I thought player safety was supposed to be all the rage these days?'"
I agree with most of this. Leaving this particular incident aside, the fact that it happens 10 or 12 times a game doesn't mean it should happen. (I have to leave this incident aside as the baby woke up with 7 minutes left so I didn't see the rest of the game....)
My solution would be, rather than dish out punishments for this one (I wouldn't want to single one player out for such a popular offence, I know others will see it differently and I can understand that) but simply to issue a warning that these challenges are not going to be tolerated in future and THEN start dishing out match bans for them. I don't think it'd take long for them to mostly disappear.
They're one of thos "game's tough enough" things that you could easily remove from the game without any detrimental effect on the spectacle.
