Chad Townsend has broken his silence over the shoulder charge on Kalyn Ponga that saw the Cronulla star controversially sent off in Friday's 38-10 loss to Newcastle.
Townsend faces three matches on the sidelines after being charged for a wayward shoulder charge which caught Ponga high and sent the Knights fullback flying.
Without hesitation, match official Ben Cummins sent Townsend to the sidelines for the ugly incident, making him the third player this season to be red carded.
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Making matters worse was the dangerous tackle came after Cummins had blown his whistle to stop Ponga from taking a quick 20-metre tap due to his teammates behind offside, meaning the Townsend tackle came while play was dead.
The incident sparked debate among commentators and fans, with some feeling Townsend was unfairly treated and didn't deserve to be marched.
Having accepted his ban, Townsend has opened up on the incident for the first time with the premiership-winning halfback admitting he deeply regretted the tackle.
"I have accepted the early guilty plea and that means I'll be out for the next three games," Townsend said on his YouTube channel.
"After speaking to our coaching staff, John Morris and our legal team we decided the risk of challenging and losing and getting that five-game suspension was just too high and it's something we all agreed was not the right thing to do.
"It's extremely disappointing to miss the next three games. It's been a rough few days.
"I never went out there to intentionally shoulder charge, With those 20 more taps everything happens so quickly and I was just competing and trying to do something good for my team and it came off the wrong way, which I definitely do regret.
"It's never good to miss games when you're healthy and your fit and you're ready to go."
After the disappointing 28-point loss that brought Cronulla's finals credentials further into question, Morris admitted Townsend was in the wrong but defended his halfback's clean record, saying the incident was out of character.
Townsend issued an apology to his teammates and Sharks fans, with his three-game suspension coming at a critical time given Cronulla aren't yet guaranteed of a finals spot despite sitting in eighth.
"I feel like I've let my teammates down to not be able to be selected over the next few weeks and our Sharkies members and fans as well," he said.
"I've never been sent for 10 [minutes] let alone sent off for my whole rugby league life and I've been playing for a long time so I'm still a little bit disappointed about that."
The incident was arguably the biggest talking point to come from the NRL's round 17 action.
While the general consensus among fans felt Townsend deserved to be sent off, despite the rash act being out of character, former Sharks skipper Paul Gallen labeled the referees decision an "overreaction".
Gallen wasn't the only former player to criticse the send-off decision, with Tigers great Steve Roach, Greg Alexander and Peter Sterling arguing the contact Townsend made wasn't high and therefore only warranted a sin-binning.
