Heslop guided the NRL on its decisions to place Bennett and Dragons prop Paul Vaughan, who attended an Illawarra cafe for breakfast on the morning of his side's season-ending loss to the Roosters, into two-week COVID-19 holds.

Heslop said he didn't think it was necessary to test all Rabbitohs staff and officials before the Brisbane clash, despite Bennett taking training on Thursday morning.

And he confirmed the code would place even stricter measures on players and officials if the coronavirus infection rate increased in Sydney, claiming initial Project Apollo consultant Bennett had an "intimate knowledge" of the biosecurity rules.

"We’ve got room to manoeuvre," Heslop said. "The additional controls we could put in place range from further restrictions on what people can and can’t do through to a broader testing strategy, if that was appropriate.

"Whilst Wayne has intimate knowledge of all of the versions of the protocols, being almost the first point of contact from his club, he’s not routinely involved in discussions regarding breaches and so on. He’s quite separate from the Apollo committee [at the moment]."

The NRL on Friday night was considering imposing sanctions on Bennett and Vaughan, who was blasted for "selfish behaviour" by his coach Paul McGregor after the Dragons' loss to the Roosters. The club will punish Vaughan if the governing body doesn't do so first.

Paul [Vaughan] knew the rules, he chose to step outside them.

Dragons chief executive Ryan Webb

“Paul knew the rules, he chose to step outside them,” Dragons chief executive Ryan Webb said. “This affects our club but there is a broader community and game that are involved in this one as well.

“To be honest, I don’t think people needed the reminder. Everyone knows the rules. We’re really careful at our club that everyone understands them and our club has been really hard on that.

“We will go through a process with Paul and the NRL to decide what’s appropriate. It’s new ground for everyone, so we need to make sure we’re talking to one another, there are a lot of stakeholders involved with these things.”

The Broncos had to travel to Sydney without Langer and staff members Ryan Whitley and Blake Duncan after the club alerted the NRL to its COVID-19 breach.

NRL and Broncos sources have told the Herald the private birthday function was upstairs at the Caxton, away from the general public.

All three staff members will be forced to self-isolate for seven days and have tests before linking up with the Brisbane squad.

The isolation period has been set at only seven days as the trio have shown no symptoms and the rate of community transmission is next to nil in Queensland.

"To adhere to best practice, the staff members won't travel for [Friday night's] game in Sydney against the Rabbitohs," the Broncos said in a statement.