Not in the public interest? Want to assault an unconscious man? Go play Rugby League, you'll get a ban from playing but no actual punishment? I'm amazed we haven't heard from Greater Manchester Police... yet.
I hasten to add this isn't about the first punch, it's about the follow up.

Quote TheScientist="TheScientist"Not in the public interest? Want to assault an unconscious man? Go play Rugby League, you'll get a ban from playing but no actual punishment? I'm amazed we haven't heard from Greater Manchester Police... yet. I hasten to add this isn't about the first punch, it's about the follow up.'" www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/106 ... r-punching? Quote TheScientist The incident hasn't escaped the notice of police. "We will be liaising with the Rugby Football League, The St Helens Club, and the Crown Prosecution Service before a decision is made on what course of action is to be taken," a spokesman for Greater Manchester Police told the BBC. '"

Quote TheScientist="TheScientist"Not in the public interest? Want to assault an unconscious man? Go play Rugby League, you'll get a ban from playing but no actual punishment? I'm amazed we haven't heard from Greater Manchester Police... yet. I hasten to add this isn't about the first punch, it's about the follow up.'" www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/106 ... r-punching? Quote TheScientist The incident hasn't escaped the notice of police. "We will be liaising with the Rugby Football League, The St Helens Club, and the Crown Prosecution Service before a decision is made on what course of action is to be taken," a spokesman for Greater Manchester Police told the BBC. '"

That's my opinion too.

If charges were brought against Flower it would set a dangerous precedent imo. This incident is particularly bad, but every couple of weeks you see instances of thuggish, dangerous play. Is court action going to be taken in those cases too?

For that reason I don't really see any instance where a player would press charges for something that happened on the field.

You do realise punching someone in the face is illegal even if they're conscious, right? Your "go play rugby league" argument applies to every instance of fighting in sport ever.

When agreeing to take part in a contact sport you accept that there may be a certain level of physical contact that isn't accepted off the pitch.

A tackle is assault if performed off the pitch. The "it's illegal off the pitch so anything is fine on it" line isn't true. If a player used a firearm or other kind of weapon against another player on the pitch that wouldn't be left solely to the RFL. It would be taken up by police.

There is no hard and fast line that can be easily stated to describe what is acceptable and what isnt but we all generally know it when we see it. The Flower incident is borderline.

I'm not keen on police being involved, especially at pro level, but I wouldn't blame Hohaia if he did want to take it further.

You've to accept being tackled, you've to accept verbal abuse, you've to accept high tackles, punches and fights might happen to you on the rugby pitch. But anything much beyond that is a grey area that comes down to the individual. If he wants to take it further then it's up to him, as anything beyond those things isn't normal, accepted behaviour in a contact sport.

That's for pro level by the way, at amateur level it should be much, much stricter. As should the RL punishments which are usually pretty pathetic at amateur level.

It is a question of consent ultimately, in terms of the legal perspective. Playing sport you consent to contact within the rules and norms of the game. There have been cases that any law student would look at when looking at Offences Against the Person as a defence to assault/battery/ABH.

Technically speaking, I would say that this incident goes beyond the rules and norms of the sport and there would be a possibility to pursue it. However, what is the point? What are you looking to achieve? A criminal punishment would be unnecessary when action can be taken by the governing body and the Wigan club themselves.

I think we will only see anything if someone's career is ended through foul play possibly and it would be a civil matter.

If a player used a firearm on the pitch it would certainly be within the public interest for the police to intervene. And I don't think anyone has actually presented the argument that anything on the pitch is fine so I don't see the relevance in countering a non existent argument.

Some people are using the argument "if it happened on the street he'd be arrested, therefore he should be arrested" but that applies to all incidents of fighting on the field; they'd all be arrestable offences "on the street", and no, players don't have to accept being punched or otherwise struck as part of the game. Those things are explicitly excluded from the sport by virtue of the laws of the game.

The other thing to mention is that if Hohaia did make this a criminal matter his own infraction (the forearm to Flower's jaw) would surely be brought into question, since that too would be an arrestable offence "on the street". The CPS couldn't turn a blind eye to a forearm in the face on the basis that it occurred during a game of rugby if they were prosecuting the person who was forearmed in the face for retaliating disproportionately.

On here we're all rugby fans so to some extent we accept and expect to see the odd punch thrown
But today I've spent a lot of time on another type of forum where rugby would not normally be mentioned, posters on there cannot understand that the police aren't involved.

Are we too close to the sport to see how the rest of the nation would see it?.

If there's enough evidence (as in this case there clearly is from the video), then aren't there precedents where the police still prosecute even if the victim doesn't want to proceed?

I'm not suggesting Flower should be prosecuted BTW, I think any punishment he gets from the RFL ought to be sufficient.

What goes on in the field of play needs to stay there.
If players were to start and take action against their fellow professionals, the whole sport would quickly descend
into utter chaos.

Plus, we'd all start getting phone calls, asking if we'd been hurt or injured whilst playing sport !

No it doesn't when it's an extreme case like this. What Flower did should not be considered a part of the game or in the field of play. If Hohaia did take action he would completely justified and numpties like Gareth Hock would think otherwise.