Ruben Wiki: Four-week ban is a hard pill to swallow

Most people might be happy about being told to take a four-week 'holiday' but it's not something I'm looking forward to one bit.

I thought the four-week ban for a high tackle on Broncos second-rower David Stagg was a bit harsh but that's how the system works and I have to cop it on the chin, so to speak.

I guess my record with the judiciary is far from squeaky-clean considering I still had a number of points carrying over from my last 'conviction'.

We did think about contesting the grading of the charge, which was the worst in the eyes of the NRL but we ran out of time and decided we just needed to accept it.

Although I'll be back in time to be considered for selection for the Anzac test against Australia in Brisbane, that never came into it because I can't guarantee selection and we needed to do what was best for the Warriors.

Despite all of the time I've spent on the sidelines through being banned, I can't change the way I play the game. I might have to consider little changes to my tackling technique but it's my job to play hard, fast and fair.

The same can't be said for John Hopoate. He must have had a brain explosion to put in a flying elbow on Cronulla's Keith Galloway. That could have done some real damage. I don't know if he was trying to pump up his side but it was a pretty low blow and he got his punishment.

Although my ban has taken some of the gloss off our win over the Broncos last weekend, it was still a great win against a good Brisbane side.

In a way, it silenced some of the critics who said we hadn't improved from 2004. But we can't get carried away because it is only round two and there's a long way to go.

You're always going to have critics but we didn't worry too much about them because we believed in what we were doing and, while we still have improvements to make, we're only going to get better.

One of the great things was that we played as a team and the platform we set gave Stacey Jones and Jerome Ropati a lot of options to do their thing.

We had to be pretty tough at times, especially when Brent Webb was sin-binned, but we kept yelling out "Waitangi" to remind ourselves of the name of the steep sand dune we had to run up in pre-season training.

It's not going to be easy against the Cowboys today, either. They've carried over their form from last year, when they just missed out on a spot in the grand final.

Watching the game against the Bulldogs last week, they complete their sets, they've got a great kick-and-chase game and they have some big forwards to make space for the little men like Matt Bowen and Ty Williams.

Long gone are the days when they were easy-beats and it means I probably won't have any fingernails left watching the boys from the stands today.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY