its one of two things
1: they wanted to get a tan
2: they are football fans and lets face it when football fans fight they take their shirt off for some unknown reason

Fans are violent: They are football fans nothing to do with rugby
Fans don't fill stadiums for finals: Well they didn't market it.
Fans don't fill stadiums for internationals: Well the media ignore us and union blah blah.
Fans moan there is no money: Unions fault/media fault....anyone know where I can get a free stream on the Internet?

League fans get your head out your backside, this is our problem and we need to sort it, stop shifting blame.

They had been taking their shirts off from the start of the second half onwards, the stewards was having trouble with the topless fans all half and you could see the trouble brewing. The thing that shocked me the most is the amount of stewards in front of the Cas fans compared to the Widnes end, I didnt notice it at the game but after watching video 6 on Widnes youtube channel you can see the amount of stewards is nearly double. Hats off to the Cas players who came back on to make sure their fans didnt react to the idiots on the pitch.

and congratulations for the stewards realising it was easier to stop the Widnes fans accessing the cas fans than stop them entering the pitch from 3 sides

It's stupid for people to bury their heads in the sand and blame football supporters whenever we see trouble at a rugby game. You will never root out the idiots with that attitude.

Face facts, those were true Widnes followers embarrassing our sport on the pitch last Sunday.

Loads of them had Widnes shirts on. Are they really likely to fork out £45+ just to go to one game? No.

At best the RFL need to dock Widnes points NOW. At worst relegate them as this is hardly the first incident involving their fans.

Although a points deduction would favour my team, I don't think what happened deserves such a draconian punishment.

As regards punishments I think that is one for the police and the RFL to sort out. Probably some criminal prosecutions, probably some court enforced banning orders, probably quite a few club issued banning orders. Will Widnes as a club face any repercussion. A hefty fine certainly, but will the RFL go further. In my opinion this will come down to what action Widnes take, and what cooperation Widnes give to the police with any prosecution. Points deduction or CC ban.......from the words coming out of the Viking, probably not. Having to play their next CC game behind closed doors, or even being banned from playing CC games at home next season ? Maybe ?

What I actually hope will come out from this is that the clubs feel empowered to give its employees/stewards more powers/backup for dealing with these incident. At present, steward gets threatened, stewards defends self, steward has to justify self (some of those videos ...so a lip reading friend tells me... have Widnes fans telling the police along the line of, "what you gonna do about them pushing us over the barriers"icon_wink.gif.

MAYBE next year, it wont only be Widnes taking a tougher line on troublemakers...afterall, the mood appears to be increasingly "we dont want these d#####ads in our game"

I have a Liverpool top and a Barcelona top, but never go the games. A few go the Widnes games, but most are just big time charlies who go the big games only. The drinking from 8am in Whetherspoons and all day drinking does not help, and it would of been interesting if Widnes won and run on the pitch celebrating.

Stewards only have the same 'legal' powers as a member of public, they can make a 'citizen's arrest' on someone whom is heavily suspected to or has acted out an indictable criminal offence (an offence that can be tried at crown court). However from a legal POV detaining someone whom isn't committing (or about to commit) an indictable offence is in itself a crime. You could end up with stewards being done for assault/unlawfully detaining a person.
At present detaining someone whom has just jumped onto the field (whilst a pain in the behind/showing up their club/the sport/themselves, aren't committing a crime) could put you in a load of hot water.
You can be corralled by the stewards but you cannot be manhandled/arrested even if it would seem the right thing to do for these idiots.
The ones commiting crimes such as assault, criminal damage etc is another matter altogether but you would really need to make sure you know what you're doing as a steward before you detain someone as it could easily be turned upon you..that's just how the law is unfortunately..

I don't see how you could punish Widnes with a points deduction for something that happened in the Challenge Cup. It's probably not in the rules for the Cup anyway and it would seem a tad illogical.

As said before, a hefty fine with around half suspended.
If it happens again ban them from the Cup for a year.

Widnes should be ordered to play a home game behind closed doors.

Why?

According to Cas fans on twitter, there are a ridiculous number of stewards guarding the stand tonight - so much so that the players aren't allowed come and shake hands/sign things as per usual. A bit unnecessary?

Posters at the Castleford end at tonight's game at Warrington.