The Wood one was an easy call. Bentham bottled it. The current rules determine it is a straight red for Wood and a yellow for Pettybourne. The sensible way of dealing with it would have been a yellow for Wood and a chat with Pettybourne but it's not viewed that way anymore.

MM is certainly a pantomime villain. One who opositiin fans love to hate and pretend none of their players could possibly do what he does. As a player I rate him very highly but he does cross the line too often and needs to discipline himself better. The late challenge was worthy of a penalty, not a lot more IMO. It wasn't high, it wasn't a shoulder charge. Laithwaite landed awkwardly and every precaution was taken, rightly so. According to the match report on sky he should be fine for next week so fortunately no real damage done. You see similar challenges on a weekly basis which get nothing more than a warning letter, normally nothing at all. You can't just ban players on reputation, either ban all of them or none.

What IMO MM should get banned for is the cannonball tackle. He had no need to enter the tackle when he did, the Warrington player was on his way down and had stopped moving forward. He came in at knee height, it was from behind the knee so didn't bend beyond it's normal range of movement but he shouldn't be coming in like that.

Your choice of words is shocking.

He might be a lot of things but a coward certainly isn't one of them.

P.S Apologies if I have made a mistake in assuming that you know what a coward is.

Ho dear and you were doing fine up till then, then the red mist took over again!

Can anyone explain the unprovoked attack on Higham as well? Or is McIlorum just braindead?

Not really, McIlorum's a bit mental and was looking to get one back on Warrington. To call what he did to Higham an attack is a bit OTT. What Wood did was an attack and what lead to the subsequent aggression.

Unprovoked attack?

It was a silly bit of play from McIlorum no doubt, he had no need to hold on to Higham and throw him to the floor, but an attack? not one threw a single punch.

having watched it back last night I do think he might get a bit of bother for the late shot, It wasn't a shoulder charge but he went in late so If he gets in bother I don't think anyone could complain.

As for Wood though, I have no idea how he got away without a red card, To give both players a yellow in that situation when Pettybourne had atleast 3 punches thrown at him before retaliating is just shocking. Now that is what i would call an unprovoked attack.....

Paul Wood made the mistake of turning the game into a war.

Not a wise move as Wigan clearly weren't going to stand for that. If that was an attack then the game has gone soft.

Attack? Ha ha.

What game are we watching nowadays? I presume your just on the wind up but if not it worries me where some people want the game to go. It was rugby leagues equivalent of handbags (in football they throw hissy fits at each other whereas in League they have a wrestle).

I expect McIlorum to pick up a ban on reputation alone tbh (for the Laithwaite challenge) but 99% of other players wouldn't. It's fair enough I suppose.

The worst, most dangerous tackle of the night, was McIlorum's late third man hit on Trent Waterhouse's open stationary leg.

Then there was the late hit on James Laithwaite.

Both worse than Paul Wood's poor attempts to stroke Pettybourne's cheek. Pettybourne's shouldn't have been binned though, I'll agree with that.

I use the word coward because on a number of occasions he has hit people from behind/side on when they aren't looking. That for me is cowardly.

Yes he is aggressive and yes he doesn't shy away from the physical side of the game, hence why "coward" might seem a strange word to use for him. However some of the things he does ARE cowardly.

All incidents into account its safe to say McIlorum wont be playing next week. Might come back to haunt Wigan as he has let them down with his discipline again. I agree with the comment above regarding the cowardice of his actions. There is no doubting he is a good player, in fact I'd love to see him against the Aussies but on too many times he lets himself down with stupid actions like we saw several times last night.

That all might be true if he only hit people on the blindside with cheap shots etc but he doesn't. When the going gets tough he is the first one to step up and put his nuts on the line. He faces up to anything that happens on the field.

One of them players that all his team mates will love and all the opposition hate. A guy you would certainly want in the trenches with you.

Cant see many opposition players thinking of him as a coward either.

Mickey Mac. One of the few reasons left for watching this increasingly insipid sport. Every coach in SL would love him in their them.

The son of newton is on a par with bailey ,Both houses of the highest order.The challenge was late and to the back of the player and will def get a 1/2 game ban due to his previous thuggery!!

If you enjoy watching thugs ,get yourself down king street on a friday and saturday after midnight.As for your second point,i dont think saints and cas agree as roby and clarke are streets ahead ability wise ,maybe not as dirty but the best hookers usually arent,ie cam smith.

Before this thread descends in its inevitable way, good to see Laithwaite applauded by both sets of fans. Probably small consolation to the player but good to see in what I'm guessing was becoming a very heated atmosphere.

There was nothing in the MM challenge other than it being late in my opinion, even the dirtiest player ever to play rugby league Mr Cullen agreed. I find it pretty ironic that Wire fans are calling us dirty when they've had such players as Boyd, Cullen, Tamati, Jackson in their ranks. If you want cowards and cheap shot merchants then look no further than this list.

That's quite rich from a poster with the word nickle in their username.

I love a bit of biff + that team certainly had that.Those were the good old days

Interesting that two people that I spoke to, a recently retired RL player and a current member of warrington's backroom staff, both said there was nothing in the Micky Mac challenge. Just a late hit and a penalty at most.

No contact with the shoulder. The injury afterwards was just unfortunate. The Tomkins' one was worse because he used his shoulder.

Don't forget what Ben Westwood did early on in the Grand Final last year.

just supposing Micky gats a ban.

Last night Sam Powell looked like a little boy lost following on from MM and its no coincidence we had our worst spell of the game with MM off and SP on.
Do we go into next week with Powell and a wing and a prayer? Or do the obvious. Logans loan spell is up after Salfords weekend game, why not start Logan, with Sam on the bench.

Whinos are casting out to see what they can catch, beware the big keep net !

Make like the League leaders shield and get back in your box !

We'll see who comes out on top in the playoffs, eh? And it won't be Roby or Clarke.