Furious South Sydney officials are resigned to the fact they will be without their inspiration tyro Sam Burgess for two weeks after he was suspended for two weeks by the NRL judiciary.

Burgess was found guilty of making contact with a Canterbury player’s head while in possession at ANZ Stadium last Friday.

“(We are) obviously very disappointed with the result tonight,” Souths coach Anthony Seibold said as he exited the judiciary on Tuesday night.

“I don’t want to make any further comment other than we’ve got a game to prepare for on Friday night against the Dragons and we don’t want this to be a distraction.”

Twitter reacted strongly against the ruling:

Sam Burgess getting a 2 match suspension – surely just opened a massive can or worms if consistency is now going to be applied, wk after wk… #NRL 😶

— ReadingThePlay (@ReadingThePlay) April 3, 2018

NRL: *** @SSFCRABBITOHS enforcer @SamBurgess8 ridiculously found GUILTY of high contact & will.miss the next 2 matches!! #Rabbitohs

— NEIL EVANS (@NeilEvansmail) April 3, 2018

The NRL judiciary has just suspended @SamBurgess8 for something he has done 1000s of times in rugby league – protecting his body from a defender. Precedent has been set now. Any defender is entitled to fall over and hold their neck. Look forward to a huge game being decided by it

— Peter Addley (@PeterAddley) April 3, 2018

Hi @Todd_Greenberg, me again! Just wanted to let you know I’m super disappointed at the ridiculously disproportionate sentence handed down to Sam Burgess, when others did the same in the same round with zero penalty. I guess the Chooks are happy tho!

— Bunny Brethren (@BunnyBrethren) April 3, 2018

On what planet was Sam Burgess elbowing Josh Morris? And a two week ban? The NRL has gone loopy.

— Nick McGrath (@nickmcgrath4) April 3, 2018