I watched it a few times on iPlayer. It looks deliberate to me but I'm not 100% sure. His fist is clenched, and he is facing in the direction of green suggests it is deliberate. However, when playing it is common to go in with that sort of arm movement around the top to secure the ball and complete the tackle.

For me I think its a cheap shot, and one that should probably get a ban, but I wouldn't expect it to have been given a red card. The action looks legitimate in real time, and the ref was probably unsighted.

If he is found guilty I think him being able to serve a ban in a friendly is stupid, just like McGuire

Very few, if any, saw the incident initially. The game had gone on a couple of tackles so the ref had little choice. A straight red card? At one time the ref would have indicated a punch & sent the offender back 10m with nothing more than a thumb pointing over the shoulder. The OTT hysteria & language on this thread belongs on the Wigan board.

I'd like to see the Rhinos make a stand on this issue & not allow McGuire to serve his ban in a friendly or pre-season game but make him sit out the first regular season game in 2014.

Sure, the arm movement is/was not unusual, but surely if he was really intending to"secure the ball and complete the tackle" he would have been better served to attempt it with a full hand and fingers rather than his knuckle ends?

. . . . . unless he is as daft as he looks.

It looked fairly deliberate to me on the slow-mo, and I think it merited a red card for the position its target was in at the time.

I don't know if injury severity should be an issue, given that I am assred by some Cherry and White visitors that in the semi Blake Green lay on the floor for ages after Danny McGuire's brutal assault on his shoulder becasue "he was in shock after finding himself in an unexpected position." So the lad is clearly a bit fragile for an RL player (it's all relative, I'd have been vapourised by the initial tackle on both occasions...).

I am surprised people think everyone in the ground saw it. At the time I didn't spot it, and even on the highlights program when I was looking for it it wasn't that easy to spot. I don't really want to see the video ref sticking his beak into stuff like that. Slippery slope that leads to very stop-start matches, and the game being reffed from a cupboard.

I'm not sure anyone could be that daft.

In terms of his fist, I agree with you. That tips it to deliberate to me, but its not unusual for people to hit contact with fists clenched

As, stupidly, bans count towards International games, I wonder - does that count for players who don't play for England? So, could the RFL ban an Australia/New Zealand International from playing for their National team come world cup season? Or vice versa, can an England International be banned from an England game for something he did whilst playing in the NRL?

Genuine question.

Ya.

See: James Graham and his biting ban last Autumn.

Agreed.

The game has gone soft these days replacing the absence of real biff and dirtyness with hyperbole instead.

rlPrefer how it used to be myselfrl.

I love the ref's reaction on that. Hilarious.

Pretty sure even in those days you'd have walked for that more often than not though!

You don't see many pro players who can throw a punch like that these days either. Lovely shot.

Watching that again, & the Westwood/Green incident, I have a controversial theory that all Aussies are soft. Both acting unconscious after a mild slap. All other teams in the WC should just chin them as neither Broadhurst or Benny were sent off. I loved Whitfield? telling Bernardin to get up & some cod'ead in the corwd shouting "Beautiful. Beautiful." You could go on holiday back then & leave your door unlocked as well.

You could. All your stuff would've been gone and a load of smackheads would have moved in. But you could.

Course nowadays we have a recession, so you can't afford to go on holiday and you've pawned all your stuff anyway.

They didn't have recessions in the 80s.

...more than any other recorded match I have the one I enjoy re-watching the most is the 1978 wembley cup final. Lots of skill, no predictable last tackle kick and copious face in the mud rubbing. Lovely stuff. (Still think Noonan took a bribe to ensure his team losing though).