Wouldn't have a problem if he was. As you point out, it wasn't a gouge but neither was it a mere shove to the face.
But getting back on topic, I cringe when I see players from any side targeting the lower leg of a held player from any other angle than behind. The knee is only designed to bend in one direction and even a small impact that causes deviation from that can cause pain, damage or both. The irritating thing is that tackles like that could be outlawed at a stroke; there really can be no justification for doing otherwise IMO.

even behind is a problem, ball carrier falling backwards while tackler is underneath pushing knees and lower legs forwards and the weight of two tacklers on top,no one controlling him to the floor, allsorts have the potential to go wrong there.

But then if a player won't go down, and he's not held, what's your suggestion?

Ref could always call held , not as if the player is going anywhere with 2 players holding him up

that's a call for the ref's to make, how many times have we seen offloads with 2 or more in the tackle. Perhaps only way to stop the 3rd man below the knee is to make it an instant yellow or red card.....and as soon as 3rd man joins tackle legally and has a hand on the player it is automatically called held.....problem with that is it would stop a big strong forward getting the offload away.....and stop the defenders if more than 2 in tackle taking a player to ground (slowing the game down)

try tackling properly instead of causing an accident.

When's this weekends disciplinary candidates out ?

When Lenegan sends his requests into the RFL

Touché

After Wigan have played their semi final

What a pointless response. First, where is your evidence that legal tackles to the legs cause accidents. (Illegal ones are not relevant - they shouldn't happen and if they do should be penalized). There isn't any that I know of, other than the obvious fact that for every 1000 legal tackles of any sort, a fairly predictable small percentage will unpredictably result in some unintended injury.

Second, how do you "tackle properly" a strong forward who is surrounded by defenders but is still powerful enough to be making ground, which is why the ref has not called "held"?

It is easy to say the ref should call held very early, but surely you don't want to see barnstorming powerful thrusts through the advantage line neutered by almost immediate calls of "held"?

Coming through now

Sarginson, Mossop, Isa, FPN - all no charge

Edit - FPN, no charge for the hair pull, Grade A charge for the punch.