An utterly ridiculous decision to ban a player for 'that'. Common sense has left the building and has been replaced by a system that is obviously terrified of litigation at the cost of the games heart and soul.

I USED to love Rugby League...not any more.

Same for me. Last nail in the coffin as an RL fan for me. Wont be watching anymore.

once they banned the shoulder charge... it was all downhill from there.

We should just all watch NRL, superleague is done. The standard of play, the standard of officiating and the governance of rugby league in this country is embarrassing at the moment.

I mourn the loss of the shoulder charge to a degree, but it's very obvious why that can hurt people and do long-term damage.

A four match ban for a shirt pull on a bloke getting up is a big escalation from that.

The sport is in a terrible state, and the excitement I used to feel about it, even as recently as 10 years ago, just isn't there anymore. I rarely bother to watch games other than Wire's on Sky, and even impending Wire games tend to make me feel more anxious than excited these days. This weekend, the play-offs are on the line, and I'm not actually that bothered whether we make it or not, given that we are so far behind the top three sides anyway. There was a time when I would have been nervous about it all week. The standard of refereeing is awful, the disciplinary process is a joke, and the quality of the teams is so low compared to what it used to be. Even though I don't watch many Sky games, I always tune into The Super League Show for the highlights. Watching Catalans v Leeds this week was so depressing. Leeds, a massive club, so much success over the years, but look at their current team - the quality is atrocious. Can IMG really transform this sport? To say they've got a big job on their hands is an understatement.

The refs and judiciary are killing this game.

It’s just not fun to watch anymore. The game has gone. Why the clubs are not standing up as one against this is beyond me.

Because where clubs are concerned it’s always been about self preservation and not the game as a whole. This makes me wonder at the level of intelligence of the owners because if they don’t work together they will collectively be it’s downfall which is happening right now.

lol the NRL is even more woke than Super League

Adrian Morley used to get banned for multiple games every time he put in a decent hit over there.

It’s still better than what we are doing now though.

I do wonder about the future for all full contact sports... Rugby League, Union, American Football, Aussie Rules etc etc. Given the potential for legal action to be taken against these sports by ex-players who are now suffering from aliments and conditions that can be traced back to their participation...the sports might not be viable.

Let's be honest ,when people started playing contact sports there was no perception of what physical problems could be caused. It's taken more than a 100 years to find a link between contact sport & head injuries but at least anybody wanting to play now knows the risks.

How do the boxing ruling bodies proceed in a sport that has at its essence the aim of inflicting brain injury on the opponent?

I bet all it would take for some of these fans who have pledged not to watch RL again is for Wire to win their next 2 or 3 games and they will be back.

You’re all spitting your dummies out because it’s a Warrington player. You all weren’t bothered when sione matautia was banned for the same offence.

Because it wasn't the same offence at all was it, apparently sione wrote in support saying he was deliberately being slow because he was running the clock down and admitted that he wasn't injured at all.

There needs to be an overhaul of the way the game is governed over here, there has been for some time to stop you lot getting preferential treatment.

If we win the next two or three games I'll definitely quit. Always best to finish on a high and not tarnish it with the inevitable decline afterwards.

I wont be. Got other things planned for tonight, i'd normally watch the friday night sky game. I doubt after this week i'll be frequenting this site either. Im finding it quite liberating tbh, breaking a habit becuase thats all it has been these last few years, the overall standard is poor then you get an incident like this and i just found myself questioning why im even watching any more, its a shadow of the game i used to love. Just be my luck that warrington win the GF and i didnt see it.

I'm not a million miles from that position.

My issue with this ban is that it’s trying to fix a problem that isn’t there. Rugby players, in both codes, are renowned for their actions in response to seeing a serious injury. We’ve witnessed people pulling out of tackles when someone has pulled hamstrings through to signalling the officials when someone is injured on the floor to allow medical staff on to the pitch. It’s a rule for the sake of a rule.

The rule makers should focus on the things blighting the game and making it unattractive to watch/play rather than trivial stuff.

It's the charging structure that's wrong and given the backlash, I fully expect it to change, can't remember whether it was Chambers or in Middletons letter that the charge used to be on a sliding scale from A to E. This for me all offences should be on a sliding scale so that you are able to grade any so you avoid this position where the MRP has backed itself into a corner because that is the category for this offence. There needs to be discretion in the sentence, a fine or one match ban would have still highlighted this but a four match ban is just crazy.

massive overreaction from our fans

did he break the rules ? yes

is it his responsibility to decide if a player is injured or not ? no

is it a good idea to drag a player up who is possibly injured ? no

is this the way most contact sports are going ? yes

if we want our sport to continue then we must change the game to make certain aspects of the game as safe as possible this is one of them measures, we have ward retired early josh jones too due to concussion injuries. being stupid and saying they knew they could get injured so there should be no safety measures put in place to protect the players as best they can.

So that won't be for a while then

Oh well, touch rugby here we come!

nothing to do with touch rugby but common sense if a payer is injured looks like he DO NOT try to lift him up not rocket science really is it ?

do we want our game gone as the fans refuse to accept the dangers the players are facing? or do we try to mitigate these for the game to continue, literally some fans clearly dont care about the safety of their players and are ok with them suffering after their career is over !!!!