Captain Hook wrote:
I totally understand the not pulling up a potentially injured player and thought it was stupid of Vaughan at the time but understandable in the context of the game.
I do think though that a player pretending to be injured who is pulled at should get the same ban as the “puller”. That would be the fairest solution.
No doubt Saints would get in a psychiatrist to claim Matautia was suffering from PTSD rather than a physical injury but that is detail, it may work as a deterrent in both sides
You can't ban someone for a slow play the ball in the 79th minute of a professional RL game
He'd run 162 metres with the ball by that point and done 20 tackles. He played it like Konrad Hurrell does in the 4th minute after his first run. The refs could just deal with it by stopping the clock if they think it's being overly slow and if there is a 'fake' injury and they stay down, use the green card. That's what it's for.
As daft as this all seems, the solution to it is players not touching the ball carrier. The bans have to stay until players understand that. What they can't do is let Vaughan off (Because he was time wasting) then ban the next fool who does it when the player turns out to have had a serious injury.