Fully agree about the tactics, and it was only a matter of time before it caught up with them, hope now somebody at Wigan realises this. Don't agree with the fans comment though, yes there are you usuall glory hunters but we all get them from time to time. mr Wane needs to take a fair bit of the responsibility a: his comments pre match B: the half time team talk down under. A great insight into how he coaches and the shi@house tactics he encourages.

There is one person who I blame for this incident and it is Shaun Wane, having watched the Warriors Down Under documentary, it really does show what a little scroat he is. His tactics are poop house ones and the way he gets his players up for it is to maim someone. What was one of his comments from it, go and knock them out, I cant give you much more free reign than that. That about sums it up.

Did you work for The News of the World

He is right about the depth of exposure
When was the last time a nobody or even a somebody from RL was top of trending on twitter?

All over Talksport today. Part of me is thinking we need this controversy to publicise the sport.

Saints have all but one of their halfbacks out injured. The one halfback they do have on the field is knocked-out of the game by thuggery in the second minute after the Ape has spent the week talking-up his 'hatred' of Saints and his 'do what it takes' attitude to winning. Coincidence ? I don't think so. The more I think about it the more I think it was a decision by Wane to target Lance Hohaiai (yes I know its spelt incorrectly) and put him out of the game like the did Ratchford last year.

Every team in SL will at some point be aggressive in their approach to certain games, but the Goons got what they deserved on Saturday having got away with it for the past few seasons..... whether it be cannonball tackles, late shoulder charges, high shots, or just punching a man already incapacitated on the ground.

Flower will be held to account for his actions by the RL and cop a grade F ban. I'm guessing Wane won't be for his admission through his own words of the house tactics he employs.

Interesting to read on my SS News App that GMP are speaking to St Helens & the CPS about potentially bringing charges against Flower.

I agree absolutely with 'Anozira', 'Johnkendal' and 'comeonyouWolves'. Nothing as bad as this, but all season Wigan have gone out to rough up the opposition and take it close to the illegal. Very clear in the games against Leeds and you could say it worked. Of course it's a tough game but if you go too far it can take away some of the skill and perhaps it's no surprise that something like this happens eventually. Perhaps a part of the blame should fall on shoulders other than that of the player himself.

I have also wondered for some time why yellow cards are not used more often. If they were such an approach might not seem quite so attractive.

+1. I'll be surprised if charges are bought.
I think it is more of the police showing a profile, being in seen as in a position to act as a warning to others in amateur level not to think that it won't be acted upon.

what does a grade f carry..is it a long ban..???

8 matches

Where I work there are about 70 staff and three of us are RL fans. Usually there'd be very little talk of RL week-to-week, yet today there was loads. I reckon twenty people must have commented on it to me today.

"Nice" to see the Beeb didn't let me down.
48 hours after the event, and it's lead item on the 4 p.m. sports news on Radio 2, and top item on on their internet site. Had we or Wigan or Leeds signed someone like Cameron Smith or Billy Slater, do we think that would afford such lofty publicity? Not a chance. It might have got the last mention, after breaking news of Rooney's latest hair transplant and another inspirational press conference from Andy Murray.

The Beeb really don't like our sport.

Surely Wayne has a case to answer for the video in which he is giving a half time pep talk to his players and urging them to knock opponents out ? I've only just seen the video and it's a damning indictment of his tactics....He should be up before the beak as well as his thug.

F for Flower F for F grade charge Min 8 matches www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/o ... -st-helens

F for Flower F for F grade charge Min 8 matches www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/o ... -st-helens

Quote ="fez1"F for Flower F for F grade charge Min 8 matches www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/o ... -st-helens'" F for (dirty) fluffer

Quote ="fez1"F for Flower F for F grade charge Min 8 matches www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/o ... -st-helens'" F for (dirty) fluffer

I've had a few
"Oh you like rugby league don't you, did you see the guy that punched the other guy" type conversations today.

Daily Mash even did an article

[urlhttp://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/rugby-union-afraid-of-rugby-league-2014101391646[/url

I'd ban him for a year, the two things I hate about Wigabs tactics are the 4th man in attacking the standing leg, and the very late shots.

I wonder how this would have been treated if it had happened at the start of a State of Origin match.

The commentators would have been loving it "ooooh look at that, right on his melon!" and there would have been a 2 minute all in brawl, it would have had 500,000 views on youtube by the end of the day and would go down in legend as one of the all time great biffs and further evidence as to what State against State means.

It somehow seems fairly pointless to give him a hefty ban. He (probably) cost his side a GF win, and since any ban will be for next season, allowing Wigan 4 months to plan for his absence, the impact will be minimal.

Ok what he did was disgraceful and cannot be condoned, but I can't see how anybody benefits, or is really penalised, by a ban which will commence next season.

Agree with this, the whole talk was cringeworthy and no coach should be telling their players to go knock the f*** out of someone!

Ten match ban. ... Make it double digit to satisfy the outraged. ..

And a one match ban for hohia which he can EGP so as to not miss a match. .... if he's not punished it will be open season on elbowing someone off the ball.

I agree with Sallys comment above about if it was Origin. ..I wanted to mention this to the "outraged" on Twitter like Andrew Voss et al... they are almost in despair over their when a brawl happens in the NRL Because its all push and shove and no one throws any punches. Yet as soon as a pom does it he's a grub or a thug.
one even compared it to russel packers assault that got him sent to jail despite that being in a night club and he stamped on the blokes head. ...

Some massive over reactions by some people. ..

Let's hope this doesn't happen in the four nations. ...I imagine a few more eyes will be on this event ..... and we don't want that do we

There has been a massive over reaction to this but the publicity is great for the sport, people pretend that they are outraged but they loved seeing a bit of biff in RL again as the resulting publicity proves.

I cant take anything a footballer says seriously as if a convicted rapist can start playing football again then who are they to look at our sport with fake outrage, but they only seem to add to the publicity as Twitter is the go to place for high profile opinions on this matter for some reason!

The second punch was out of order and he will be rightly banned for a long time but he has apologised and lost his team the GF against their biggest rivals!

+1
Just rewards, had that had gone on report, Wane wouldn't be giving a hoot!
Had that had have been Hock there would be no apology either.
It matters little now he's apolologised that he gets a lengthy ban or not as the spoils rightly went to Sts, the panel should take that into consideration. It seems unfare that he receives the same ban as Hock!

Very surpised at the decisions of the disciplinary panel.
Bowen, O'Loughlin and Powell all escape further punishment. Wigan mustn't be a dirty team then.....

Joking aside, I am worried about the way things are going.
Powell will deservedly get a big ban but the RFL can hardly do anything else in the circumstances.
Some of those other decisons though.... would you really want your son or daughter playing anything other than touch rugby in the current atmosphere?