Does the player also follow it up by dropping a knee on the grounded player in these hundreds of occasions?

I'm more worried about the one time he did it that genuinely looked like he was trying to hack the Saints lads arm off, just as bad as the cannonball imo

I thought there was a very short ten tonight. Possibly due to the conditions or wigan play the ball not being as quick as usual. It smacks of classic Nathan brown niggle tactics and combine that with the most clueless ref in the league and you get a scrappy and fractious game.

You're more worried about this one time when the player was penalised than all the other times when players aren't? Anti-Wigan by any chance?

If you watch the first Wigan try half the Saints team were offside, however it worked in our favour that time as the ones that were left a disjointed defensive line.

The ref bottled the Hampshire knock on. He also bottled the shoulder to the head. No lack of clarity there, he aimed for the head and got it. Horrible cheap shot.

I had no problems with the knock on against Saints where Greenwood had it stripped, the Goons around me were going mental about him stopping a runaway try. Charnley was offside once the Wigan player touches it however.

The big talking point for me is the cannonball tackling. That is a far, far bigger issue than shoulder charges ever were. Do we really have to see a career ending injury to a star player before something is done about it? Wigan are clearly coached to do it, Wayne Bennett is on a crusade to get it banned in the NRL and he admits they all coach it over there. McIllorum's always been a scumbag, but those two attempts to damage knee joints were about his only contribution tonight. It's a pathetic and cynical technique that needs to be removed from the sport as soon as possible.

this was the same referee that had no hesitation sending off luke robinson in Perpignan in may for an almost identical challenge??, except robinson was proved he had no case to answer.
this one was heaps worse yet he doesn't see fit to send flower off.

inconsistency at its very worse!

I have nothing against Wigan... they can be a joy to watch, but not when a game is going against them it seems.

Which is pretty much anytime they aren't 2/3 scores up after the first 20 minutes.

I think there was a stat where out of 4 games they haven't scored first in this season, they've lost 3 and drawn one.

Even their 2 most recent trophy wins were on the back of being 16 points up after the first 20 minutes.

Pretty much since 2010 when maguire took over, their modus operandi seems to be, blitz the opposition in the opening 20, then switch to auto pilot and maintain for the remaining 60.

Nothing against Wigan, just that you're "more worried" about the fouls we commit (that get penalised) than those committed by others (that don't).

Who said I'm not worried by other teams? Quit the paranoia.

Will be interesting to see the result of the Wellens Water incident, I'm guessing just a fine for it though.

In his defence, Childs performance was better than Wigans.

In the grand scheme of things that happened in the game this is not even noteworthy.

It did lead directly to a Wigan error that gave Saints good field position, and ball tampering is surely against the rules. May not have had a massive impact, but it is still illegal.

I never said it did.

that is potentially the icing on your "I want to look like a cock" cake

I pointed out that it goes unpunished every week and you said you were more worried about this one. As for paranoia? This thread consists of Saints fans donning their tin foil hats and claiming there was a conspiracy in favour of Wigan. You need to look in the mirror pal.

It's amazing to see how fans see the game so differently and remember only what they want to.

It was not an automatic sending off as there was no contact with the head.

It looked like a deliberately late shoulder charge with impact to the upper back, this caused a visible whiplash (as the torso was thrown forward while the head followed", then the head made contact with the arm of his own player, then (presumably as he was already sparko) he could do nothing to stop his head bouncing on the deck when he fell.

If the contact had been with the head then the head would have gone forward, not back, relative to the body. Which seems pretty conclusive.

If this is the case (and I didn't manage to watch the game) then there needs to be a rule change at the RFL. The post match commission or whatever they need to be called, should be able to discipline players and coaching staff for match official abuse.

This needs to happen across the game and needs to happen quickly otherwise we'll end up like football.

Whether or not the language used was offensive is not the point - the agressive manner needs to be targetted.

When out of interest was the last time a player or coach was banned for match official abuse in RL? I know in RU recently, the Leicester Tigers head coach Richard Cockerill has been banned for 9 matches for swearing at the fourth official.

This is a statement - so that other coaches etc. don't do it.

Why is the RFL not acting in a similar way? It shouldn't be up to the individual referee to complain, it should be seen on camera and actioned. This would be by far the quickest way to clean up the game.

Spot on.

That said, I thought Childs was fairly poor last night. Overly pedantic for some calls, incorrect for others. Saints fans have outlined their grievances - so what about Charnley not being allowed to finish the break after Hampshire dislodged the ball? What about the clear strip late on given as a knock-on? What about Goulding being penalised when his eyes never left the ball? What about Dudson being penalised for trying to dislodge LMS' arm when it's something you see regularly but I've NEVER seen penalised? Perhaps because Saints had a strop?

As for the 'cannonballs' - some fans need to differentiate between that and securing the legs when 2 men have the man held up top. For the amount of complaining Saints did, I'm sure they'd have spat an enormous dummy if they felt cannonballing was taking place. A genuine cannonball tackle is unmistakable, there were none last night.

No, Childs wasn't good for either team, but then neither team was particularly good either. The crux is that Saints were marginally better than a very poor, scrappy and indisciplined Wigan on the night but neither will win anything playing like that.

it was a dangerous, late illegal tackle, as evidenced by the fact he knocked him out before he hit the ground. Contact with the head isnt the sole reason for sending someone off.

He was offside. Hampshire pulls the ball out, it also rolls down his back before Charnley picked it up.