Every team has the 3rd man in goes around the legs, it's the modern game and kids of 15 are taught to do it.

It's a ploy to slow the play the ball down and the idea is to put the player on his back (takes longer to get up to play ball).

By no means does it mean the 3rd man cannon balls the attacking player

What concerns me is that we tried to sign FPN, did the club do their homework on him or was it a recommendation from Soliola etc. It only took a couple of google searches to find out that he does the daft stuff and has problems with his temperament, he was also some kind of gang thug in Aukland and despite Rugby League mending his ways he still can't help himself from doing the occasional off the ball stuff.

Was the club willing to take the risk of having a Vila Matautia type player rather than an Apollo Perelini one,

I would hope that if the guy turns out to be a Hock clone that he would be shown the door tout de suite! We've enough with injuries, we don't need a load of suspension added to the mix, who would?
As I've said before I don't mind a bit of rough in our game I don't think we should over sanitise it too much, a bit of lets call it rough and tumble IMO is acceptable, thuggery isn't. But thug is a nasty word that is used too much on these boards and I would say is way out of context on many occasions. The Flower's incident I think was a red mist and "brutal" act of unacceptable on field violence, of that there's no doubt, but even though I don't no the man personally I wouldn't call him a thug on or off the field. Telly has made us over scrutinise something that when we are at the game with our mates would just say “ the dirty dog” and moved on. Now he's a mindless thug even when no one's really hurt.

He hit LMS late, off the ball and when LMS wasn't looking. The epitome of thuggery.

I'm so glad we didn't sign him. He looks woeful. I wonder if greenwood has let him out of his pocket yet?

Regards

King James

Well said.