Is Bad Ben going to get a fitting reception from the majority of Saints fans?

It's a tough one, because he's got a decent chance of being on the winning side. If the Saints fans go with booing, they will probably be silent after 20 minutes when Wigan are two scores in front. A better bet would be to chant about Lance rather than giving that scum the pleasure of the attention being on him? As with that other tool Newton, he'll probably enjoy it. But it might be the first time there has ever been any noise from the Saints fans at Langtree so who knows? Fingers crossed the boys can make a game of it.

Surely an ironic cheer and applause for him gifting us the final would be more likely to get in his head.

The thing is, he's not a comedy villan like tomkins, Newton or Bailey. He's a decent player who had a moment of absolute madness. It's not generally part of his game, and as Backrow says, he did basically gift us a GF win

We could just make fun of him, pity the club couldn,t play The Eye of the Tiger" when he comes off the bench, so we will just have to chant champions when he takes the ball up.
Wonder if he will pick on the smaller guys in the team or will he front up to Walmsley and Mose.

My reaction to flower is "meh"

Average enough player that let his teammates down. Couldn't care less tbh.

I personally think he should be given a standing ovation. If it wasn't for him we'd still be smarting from a record grand final defeat.

Summed up nicely for me.

He's a good bloke by all accounts and it was totally out of character. A lot of the fuss seems to have blown over because I've seen very little in the press about this being his first game against Saints. I didn't give it a thought until the other day.

it would make a change from the usual chants of 'FFFFFFFOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRWWWWWAAAAARRRRDDDDDD'





In all seriousness though, I expect you lot to give him some right stick and fair enough. However, pretty sure that there is nothing you can do/say that will make him feel any worse than he does already about letting his team mates down

We just need to let it go........

Agree fully! does no good for the club, Town and game! - as they say "He who laughs last, laughs Longest" - watch out that is not egg on the face with any disapproval pushing Wigan on even more to win! Just play the game and everyone available give it their Best, nothing more you can ask for.

Agree but I have long since realised that, where parochialism exists, common sense is an unwelcome visitor....

The cognoscenti of LP will be baying for blood on Friday as usual. Quite sad really.

IMO, the smart move from a Wigan perspective would be to have him in the starting 13 but give him strict instructions not to touch the ball for the first couple of sets, let the game get going and take the heat out of it.
If he takes the first ball up he's going to get smashed and that'll just lift the Saints crowd especially if they force an error which is very likely.

PS, can't wait for this, should be a cracker !

Indeed. Would have been interesting to see the first tackle if we still has Soliola.

Just ignore him.

I'll guarantee Sky will be droning on about it.

Yes, they will ignore the game and go on about Flower instead.

What is this nonsense about him 'gifting' us the game? Have you all fallen for Wane's ridiculous claim that Flower was worth a 30 point turnaround, because obviously teams NEVER get a result when they go a man down (unless they are playing Wigan, in which case going a man down galvanises them and actually improves their performance).

On a similar note, the "Ben Flowe f-ed it up" song is entirely cringeworthy.

Not saying we wouldn't have won without that happening as I believe we could. Having your opposition to 12 men on the field for the entire game is a bit of a 'gifted' advantage though

how about a collective turn of the back if he comes off the bench.

Surely best just to give him the attention we give to all other bang-average players. His antics might have elevated him to god like status in the eyes of Wigan fans but we don't need to follow suit.

It wouldn't have needed to be a 30 point turnaround though, just 9. I don't think we'd have won that match had he not been sent off. Still, one of the great Grand Finals though





Fully agree. We should be singing about Saints, not Wigan. It's embarrassing at times.

We'd have won the Grand Final whether he'd stayed on or not. The Grand Final was over as a contest the moment Mose/Sia smashed the Goon player fifteen yards backwards on the first tackle. Our pack would have marmelised their's, whether Flower had been there or not. It was in the stars.

It did seem like it was written in the Stars didn't it ?

I don't think we would have won if flower hadnt been sent off. It's not that he's a good player but the fact the goons was a man down for 72 mins and still looked better then us in attack.

Flower messed up and we won so I'll take that. I won't be cheering or booing Flower as he's a nothing plsyer that become infamous over one of the worst incidents I've seen on a rugby league pitch.

What he did in the final was appalling, but that doesn't put him in the same league of scum as Hock or Newton. He's just a very average player who had a major brain fart and will suffer for ever as a result. The others were vermin on and off the pitch who the game would be better off without