Sam Burgess on 'honest conversation' with RFL's Robert Hicks

And in his explosive comments in the aftermath, Warrington Wolves head coach Sam Burgess said he was duty-bound to “ask questions for his team” after Paul Vaughan was sent from the field during Friday’s defeat to Leigh Leopards.

After the incident in which Vaughan’s shoulder made contact with the head of Leopards prop Owen Trout as he returned a kick-off, the decision to send the Wire man off and the subsequent three-match ban – a Warrington challenge of which was dismissed on Tuesday – handed to the Australian sparked a furious reaction from supporters and observers.

There were none more incandescent than Burgess, who slammed the incident as “embarrassing” during his post-match press conference and promised to take the matter further.

With the dust now starting to settle, the Wire head coach revealed he had “an honest conversation” with former Super League referee Robert Hicks, who now serves as the RFL’s company secretary while holding overall responsibility for match officials, about the incident over the weekend.

So having promised to ask questions, did Burgess get the answers he was looking for?

A stunned Paul Vaughan leaves the field having been sent off against Leigh Leopards (Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com)

“I don’t know if there are any answers in the present, but we’re all striving for the game to be better,” he said.

“We want it to be safe and I’m certainly not thinking otherwise, but we can do that by managing to keep 13 players on the field.

“Exposing them to having 12 and 11 men for long periods of time is not safe. We’ve got to find a happy medium with it.

“I don’t know if anything will change in the short-term with it, but I appreciate the honest conversation I had with Rob.

“I’d obviously had a bit of sleep since Friday night so it was a bit more balanced, but I think he’s in agreeance with some of my points.

“I understand the position with the insurance policies and I don’t want to bore everyone with the detail on that, but I think we’re all in agreeance with some aspects of it.

“As coaches and players, there’s also some aspects of it that we have to concede.”

Burgess will now have to plan for what remains of the regular season without Vaughan, who will next be available when the play-offs begin, with Warrington’s place already secure.

One final attempt to at least reduce – and perhaps even overturn – the penalty notice came at Tuesday’s Operational Rules Tribunal hearing, but the Match Review Panel’s Grade D head contact charge was upheld.

While admitting the challenge was probably akin to “going up a dead end,” Burgess insisted it was the right thing to do for the player himself.

“He feels a lot of things because we’re in an exciting time of the year and he’s worked hard to help the team get here,” he said when asked how Vaughan had reacted since the incident.

“I really didn’t think there was much intent in that tackle and having listened to him talk about it, neither did he.

“We felt there were mitigating factors in it, which is why we challenged it, but the framework we live in is pretty tough.

“We were probably going up a dead end in some respects but for Vaughany’s peace of mind and for us as a club, it was doing the right thing by Vaughany.

“I still don’t think it’s a red card, which may not be a popular comment for a lot of people, but we all have a responsibility as players, coaches and administrators to try and make the product as good as possible. I don’t know if 13 v 12 is the best product.

“That doesn’t mean you should have free reign to go around taking people’s heads off – that’s been illegal since the game started.

“I just think we can get trigger-happy and we need to calm down a bit with the cards.”