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Why Liam Watts can play for Castleford Tigers against Wigan Warriors this weekend despite missing just one game of a two-match ban

Liam Watts was banned for two games for Castleford Tigers following the Disciplinary Match Review Panel’s combing through of the fixtures before the Challenge Cup Final weekend.

Watts was charged with a Grade B Tripping offence and so missed the Tigers’ visit to the AJ Bell Stadium against Salford Red Devils almost a fortnight ago.

However, because Castleford had a reserves fixture arranged in the week building up to the Challenge Cup Final against Wigan Warriors, it counted towards Watts’ ban, meaning he will be free to play when Wigan come to town on Saturday 4 June live on Channel 4.

It’s good news for head coach Lee Radford who knows just how important Watts is to Castleford’s go forward, although the 100-0 loss to Wigan’s reserves would not have pleased anyone at the club.

Watts was sinbinned in the seventh minute during Castleford’s big 32-0 win over Hull KR, with the initial citation being sent by the referee Chris Kendall for a high tackle.

However, Watts has been given a two-match ban for a trip instead for the same tackle, with Radford giving his thought after the game.

“I haven’t watched it back but live it didn’t look great,” Radford said.

“I think if that was round one to six, it could have been an eight-game suspension. Now it’s probably a little tick in the box.”

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. TeethGrinder

    May 31, 2022 at 7:09 am

    There is an easy way to put an end to that sort of nonsense. A ruling that if a player is suspended by the judiciary, the only matches that count for his suspension are those played in the SAME GRADE as the one in which he was playing when he committed the offence.

    So if he gets a two match suspension for an offence incurred in a First Grade match he has to miss out on the next two First Grade matches – Reserve Grade matches do not count.

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