Oddly enough though, the first, considerably less sinister looking punch, was far more likely to cause a brain injury. The brain typically gets injured bouncing around inside the skull cavity which would happen much more with the first punch and ground impact. The second punch was much more likely to damage the skull itself. All a bit yucky in any event.

"The suspension means Flower will miss 13 matches: 10 First Utility Super League fixtures, two pre-season games and the World Club Series match against Brisbane Broncos."

Superbly handled by all concerned. Hugely professional and supportive statements from Saints, similarly from Wigan. Swift and stern action from the RFL without paying the slightest bit of attention to the wailing muppets wanting his head, including those on here and in the press.

Fantastic to see the comments concerning his welfare moving forward. Something FlexWheeler in particular might like to reflect on.

Whilst I agree that the ban seems reasonable.

Lets not forget that for betting on a match Long got 3 months and Gleeson 4 months mid-season.

So before Wiganers pipe up about Flower being a scape goat, there are others who have missed more matches for not hurting anyone.

Agreed.

Other than being entirely wrong you are correct.

The brain is especially susceptible to damage from a second impact.

I'm going to take a 4 month break from SuperLeague in protest at the leniency shown.

Or the Wigan fans trying to deflect attention and blame by trying to over state Hohaia's previous involvement in the incident.

It could be, but since he says Lenagan will sort it IF he finds anything to sort it is as much a response to the witch hunters and a show of solidarity between the RL community, particularly that they will stand by Wigan, which says to me this is RL's issue and we'll sort it ourselves thank you very much. He could have gone the route of his less than classy coach and stuck the boot in with some bare allegations.

I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand the press by and large seem to have bought into it being reasonable / harsh, Daily Express an exception of those papers I have seen so far. The Christian forgiveness angle from Saints is good too. But, at the end of the day the number of matches banned for is too low. It suggests that player protection is being sacrificed - exactly what would warrant a large ban? I suspect they took into account the fact that it happened right at the start of the match when players are traditionally over-hyped up. Haven't they banned punching in Australia? If so, why not here?

Nah, it's ten games plus any others like internationals and friendlies.

Personally looking at the rules I thought it was an E charge. 4-8. Probably a 7 given his previous record.

But then those 7 I would have expected to be SL games. I think the fact it was the GF tipped it over to a grade F.
Whilst it was a vulgar strike, I would have thought 8 would have placated most Saints fans. Making it 10 games should make most people happy that it's been taken seriously.

Viewing the incident in full real time from above as shown on the bbc website clip you get a different perspective of this than the completely shocking slow motion image starting withFlower stood over Lance punching him in the eye.

The distance Flower gets knocked back, the speed and momentum between the first punch and the second - Flower didn't have time to do an awful lot of thinking between those two punches., he was already in motion with the second straight after the first.

It was bad, very bad, and the images that have been seen by the public are shocking. But it wasn't as bad as the frenzied mob have made out. The ones that have been able to view in slow mo, pore over the image of flower fist cocked over a prone player, looking as though he has taken second to line him up, deliberate and hit him.

He's got a very long ban, a record ban, a rep that will stick with him for the rest of his life, after having a pretty clean record to now.

I'm not really sure what some of the more hysterical posters on here want to do to the guy.