Sam Burgess' legal counsel had pleaded with the NRL judiciary not to make "too tough of a call on ball-carriers" before the panel's two-match suspension of the South Sydney star for dangerous contact.
The Rabbitohs were left "very disappointed" after Burgess was found guilty of making careless and dangerous contact on Canterbury defender Josh Morris in their Good Friday clash.
The English forward and his lawyer James McLeod claimed the ball-runner was merely bracing for impact when his forearm struck Morris' neck, as the Canterbury centre dashed across from marker.
Judiciary chairman Geoff Bellew told his three-man panel to ignore McLeod's "tough call" reference, insisting they only judge on the descriptors of the dangerous contact charge - that being it was careless, had unacceptable risk and was with the head or neck - and not on emotions.
But regardless, McLeod's request will be a talking point across the NRL going forward after two other other tacklers were seriously knocked down by hulking ball-carriers last week from restarts.
Burgess posted a now-deleted photo on social media over the weekend of Jason Taumalolo making similar contact with Isaah Yeo. This resulted in the Penrith defender leaving the field for a concussion check but the North Queensland star was not charged.
Parramatta hooker Kaysa Pritchard was also taken off in Parramatta's loss on Monday to the Wests Tigers after he joined a tackle on the far bigger Russell Packer.
In those instances, it's possible the match review committee decided there was no discernible movement of the offending arm and neither incident was even penalised.
McLeod's message was still resonating with a frustrated Rabbitohs camp who didn't take questions from media after Tuesday evening's hearing.
"Rules need to be given a common-sense approach and application in directness to the nature of the game," McLeod said.
"It would be too tough of a call on ball-carriers who are like the situation that Sam was in, to prohibit and make illegal the act of standing one's ground as ball-carrier and bracing for impact.
"Sometimes in rugby league, there are collisions which are somewhat awkward and unfortunate ... But it doesn't mean the cause of that is an illegal act on behalf of player Burgess."
Burgess also claimed he had less than a second to prepare for Morris' impact, which came as he travelled across the field from marker with the Souths' prop stuck on his own line.
But the panel of Dallas Johnson, Tony Puletua and Mal Cochrane took 15 minutes to disagree and side with NRL counsel Peter McGrath.
"He's not only braced himself but he changed the direction of the forearm and brought it into contact with Morris," McGrath said during the hearing.
The South Sydney forward will miss Friday's game against St George Illawarra and the following week's clash with rivals the Sydney Roosters, after carryover points from an earlier cannonball tackle took the ban beyond one week.
