Lee Radford “disappointed” by the big ban exciting Castleford youngster suffered

Last week, Elliot Wallis was charged with Grade E striking.

This meant that the youngster, currently playing his trade at Midlands Hurricanes but originally of Castleford Tigers and playing for the League One club on dual registration was sent to a tribunal facing a ban of around five games akin to what Josh McGuire of Warrington Wolves suffered for unacceptable language prior to the new season.

The tribunal was held Tuesday night.

At the meeting of the Operational Rules Tribunal, Wallis – of the Midlands Hurricanes – was handed a five-match ban for Grade E Striking in their Betfred League One victory over Cornwall.

Wallis entered a guilty plea and was also handed a £75 fine.

This isn’t an ideal situation for the Hurricanes as they begin their League One Campaign.

Now Castleford boss Lee Radford has expressed his disappointment at the decision.

He said to BBC Sport West Yorkshire:

“Yeah gutted, really disappointed because he was phenomenal in that game and probably looked a level above, so for him to sit out for five weeks is a disappointment.

When asked If it was a fair call he said: “Have you seen the footage, I’ll let you make your decision.”

That happened on dual reg, an alternative to reserves rugby and Radford gave his verdict on the reserves:

“We have kids like Sam Old for example who missed out on pre-season friendlies because he carried a suspension over, so to get his season up and running is an absolute must for us. There’s plenty of players in our squad who needs some minutes.

“Ideal world they’d have never got rid of it many many moons ago. I think now with what’s happened with dual reg, the detriment is that we’re sending players out on dual reg or on loan instead of playing reserves. But sometimes when you look at the scorelines of the reserve games the standard probably isn’t where we all want it to be.

“Also if you’re bringing kids in from amateur there’s a knock-on effect to the amateur game and you get a kick back from the amateur clubs as well. Ideally we’d want it thriving and as many kids playing as we possibly can. Unfortunately it usually goes down as resources being the reason for it not being as strong as it usually can be.”