London Broncos captain Wes Naiqama is facing a spell on the sidelines after being handed a Grade D dangerous contact charge.
The Fijian international will attend at RFL disciplinary hearing on Tuesday this week following the incident in the recent home win over Dewsbury.
Naiqama was sinbinned for the offence but coach Andrew Henderson believes the grading is harsh.
Henderson said: “I’ve spoken to Wes about it and he assures me there was no malice or intent in the incident.
“To be handed a grade D charge suggests that he has deliberately tried to hurt an opponent and I don’t think that’s the case.
“That’s the thing I want to get across when we attend the hearing – as well as the fact that this is the first disciplinary hearing we’ve had in my 18 months in charge.
“Although I coach the players to be tough, it’s never anything dirty or deliberate.”
Henderson was finally able to hand a debut to Papua New Guinean captain Israel Eliab in Saturday’s Challenge Cup clash with Featherstone.
Henderson said: “It took a bit longer than I hoped, because it took a bit of time to get him over here.
“He got off the plane and we had Workington away that week, so it was more about him settling in, and then in week two he pulled his hamstring in training.
“That set him back a week or so, but he’s looked comfortable in training since and has been doing his homework, studying how we play.
“I was confident he was ready to play some part in the game.”
