Bulls boss Steve McNamara feels justice has been done after Nick Scruton last night escaped punishment from the Rugby Football League’s disciplinary panel.

The powerful prop was cleared of all charges arising from a bone-crunching tackle on Joel Clinton during Sunday’s 40-4 win against Hull KR.

Red Hall’s initial decision to call Scruton in for the incident – a contender for hit of the season – had left McNamara completely puzzled.

Neither the players nor referee James Child appeared to see anything wrong at the time and only after the game was he charged with a Grade B illegal high tackle, which carries a recommended suspension of one to two games.

But upon reviewing the footage, the disciplinary panel agreed with the referee’s assessment, allowing Bradford to breathe a sigh of relief.

McNamara said: “I would have been very surprised and disappointed if he’d been suspended for what was a good, old-fashioned rugby league tackle.

“Two front-rowers hit each other full-on, front-on and Joel Clinton, to his credit, gets up dazed, shakes it off, carries on and looks to get Nick back with challenges later in the game.

“We’re all complaining at this moment about four blokes holding one bloke in a tackle and wrestling him to death. If we don’t want to see that as much, we want to see high-speed collisions and that’s what it was.

“You can tell by the reaction of both players and all the officials that there was nothing in it and they were the closest people to it.

“When players see something untoward they react to it but nobody did a thing. They didn’t even flinch.”

The news will come as a major relief to Bradford, who would have been loathe to lose the in-form 25-year-old for Saturday’s game against Crusaders at Murrayfield.

Scruton has been one of the Bulls’ outstanding performers so far this year, forming possibly the most effective starting prop partnership in the league with skipper Andy Lynch.

The former Leeds star has not missed a single game since signing from the Rhinos prior to last season and has started every contest in 2010.

McNamara said: “Nick’s been very good for us since he came. He took a little bit of time to adjust but he’s not missed a game for us yet.

“He took some adjustment from being a number three or number four prop at Leeds Rhinos to being a first-choice starting front-rower.

“With that transition and change of role, he was okay in his first dozen games for us but in the second half of last season he was superb and he’s just got better and better.

“He’s still only 25 and he’s been a real key player for us this season.”