Quote: Cronus "The point is quotes on this thread such as 'Hohaia did nothing wrong', 'entirely blameless', 'completely innocent', from blinkered fans choosing to ignore the illegal block and downplay the attack on Flower. Nothing, and I repeat this again for the ever-present terminally stupid, can excuse the final punch, but both players bear responsibility for instigating and escalating the incident (Hohaia's 1-match ban should be evidence enough of that).
Let me ask you this. If Hohaia hadn't moved to block Flower, would any of this have happened? No, it wouldn't. Flower simply wouldn't have had anyone in the way to knock down. Each player's reactions were then entirely disproportionate at each stage but it should have ended at the first punch, which was bad, but probably within the realms of acceptability in terms of RL as such an aggressive sport. The second was inexcusable, entirely Flower's responsibility and utterly beyond the pale. He knows that and we know that. Is that really so hard to understand?'"
Its very ironic that you are suggesting that Hohaia did an "illegal block" in open play, something that Wigan had exercised all last season, then suddenly when the opposition allegedly does it then it becomes illegal. You are just digging yourself a bigger hole trying to justify what could have been if events leading up to the incident had been different.
We are looking forward to our next derby match and watch with interest to see if Flower will again try to impose himself again on the smallest player on the pitch be it Walsh or Burns, will be very interesting to see if he can deal with the big men in the saints pack.
