It’s the 79th minute of the Grand Final and Jonny Lomax hits Blake Austin with a high shot.
It’s clumsy not malicious as his forearm bounces up from Austin’s chest. But he is sent off. Lomax traipses off, the second red card of the game after Mikolaj Oledzki was sent packing minutes earlier for accidentally catching Tommy Makinson around the head as the winger skidded low before contact.
Neither players are dirty, neither player has a history of appearing before the disciplinary and yet both will face bans. And crucially, both key players will miss England’s World Cup opener against Samoa. This is hypothetical of course. I’m no Mystic Meg.
