Hooper One Week Ban

[TRF_heineken]

I don't really understand what SANZAR was hoping to achieve with their appeal. There was always going to be mitigation for Hooper's clean record, and since the entry point for this offence was Low End (two weeks), the only way they could have got a more severe ban was to argue that the entry point should have been Mid Range.
While I agreed with QC Nigel Hampton's assessment that this was striking, I can't see how a Mid Range entry point could be justified.


ETA: Its also worth also noting that the ARU's appeal, in which they were trying to argue that hitting an opponent with an open hand is not striking, was also dismissed (and rightly so).
I think we can expect WR to close that loophole in the 2016 Laws.

I think the purpose of the appeal was more to send out a message. In the past years, there weren't appeals lodged for citings. And this year, there has been a showing from the administrators that they are willing to take matters on which they might not agree with. I think the appeal was there to show that SANZAR, as an organisation will stand together and not let one team/country be the boss of it.

I hope there are some changes to the laws in 2016.

 

[The Jones Boy]

I would rather he was fit to play the AB's so we can gauge how the AB's are developing.
Another very tough away game will do a lot for helping Hansen work out who is up for the northern challenge