Hull Kingston Rovers are expected to make a decision today on whether or not they decide to appeal against the hearing outcome on Elliot Minchella's ban, which is keeping the Hull KR captain ruled out of the imminent play-off semi-final.
After studying the detail of last night's hearing, Rovers will have to decide if they can try to find a way to potentially change the verdict in the way that St Helens did when they succeeded with a second appeal to free Morgan Knowles to play in the 2022 Grand Final, which they won, against Leeds Rhinos.
Minchella has served one match of his two-game ban, a game that was on Friday night, September 20th, as the team beat Leeds Rhinos, a result which secured the home semi-final as their next game, rather than facing an eliminator this weekend. The Rovers captain has been given his ban for a high shot on Leigh Leopards' Matt Moylan during the 24-0 win over them on September 13th, which led to him being sin-binned on the night, and it was then deemed Grade C contact - and Rovers challenged that grading at Monday's hearing, but did not secure the outcome they desired.
St Helens won their case on Knowles after not providing any fresh evidence - but they reviewed the findings then made an argument regarding the positioning of the player's arm and how that positioning did not match the verdict regarding the risk caused by the player. In that case, a two-game ban after a sin-binning had also been imposed initially, after Knowles' alleged arm twist on Chris Atkin, which was deemed a Grade B charge, but that was over-turned following the successful second appeal.
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