CASTLEFORD TIGERS’ Sylvester Namo failed in his attempt to overturn a five-match ban given to him by an Operational Rules Tribunal on Tuesday.
Namo was initially charged with a Grade F Dangerous Contact, later downgraded to Grade E, following a tackle during the Tigers’ 60-6 loss to Wigan Warriors last weekend.
That tackle saw Wigan’s Willie Isa suffer a broken and dislocated ankle, with Castleford’s appeal too failing last night.
The minutes from the Tribunal have now been released which reveal that the Grade F charge was given “in order to reflect the terrible outcome for” Isa and they deemed it to “extend beyond the ordinary range of sentence for this type of offence” which usually yields a Grade A-D charge.
Castleford’s response, led by head coach Craig Lingard insisted that Namo’s tackle was “an unfortunate rugby incident that had unhappily caused a serious, but wholly unintended, injury.”
For that reason, the Tigers entered a Not Guilty plea, with the Match Review Panel’s representative, Gavin Wild, explaining the argument.
Wild explained that Namo moved at speed towards Isa who was already being tackled and “substantially stopped” by two other Castleford men.
The MRP accepted that Namo’s initial point of contact was with Isa’s thigh but that his knee was in an “unacceptable position” as he contacted the Wigan’s man leg – he was therefore deemed to not be “in control of his actions” and didn’t “moderate his contact” thereafter at the point of contact with a “drop tackle” being spoken about.
Namo explained that he had gone into the tackle to “chop” Isa, but had kept going forward with his knee then landing on the back of Isa’s ankle.
Lingard went further, denying that Namo had approached the tackle “in any uncontrolled fashion nor at any excessive speed” with the initial point of contact on Isa’s hip, stressing that the Castleford player could not have held himself or Isa up as he was hit in the head by his own player making the tackle on the other side.
The minutes state that the Tribunal “carefully considered this evidence” but concluded that Namo “continued onwards into Isa and in going then to the ground he came down on top of the Wigan man thereby making the heavy and objectionable contact with the back of WI’s ankle that caused the very serious injury.”
The MRP also rejected the claim that Namo was “groggy” after hitting his own player in the tackle, with the Tribunal looking “very carefully” at the video and stills of the incident, claiming there was no “substantial” contact and no subsequent HIA assessment.
Tigers’ managing director, Mark Grattan, “complained” that the Tribunal had dealt with the case as a “drop tackle” – something which the RFL did not raise.
The explanation given by the MRP was that “although both Mr Wild and the Tribunal had used that shorthand expression (albeit qualifying it substantially) in order to describe Namo coming down on top of Isa, the nature and substance of this case had never changed and it had not been dealt with on any other basis than that that had been consistently discussed verbally and in writing.”
Namo’s good disciplinary record was balanced against the level of harm caused to Isa, leading to a Grade E offence charge.
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