Although I agree with much of your post, Flower fully deserved a long suspension. Not for the first punch, but for punching the head of a defenceless man already prone on the ground. Had it happened in the street and caught on CCTV, he would have expected a custodial sentence.

Yep.
First punch = a bit of biff. A warning to those pesky halves to sit down and shut up ya girl. A sin bin from the ref and a commendation from the PFU.

Second punch = Total no no. It's not tough to do that. Definite red card & definite very long ban. He was lucky to get only 10 games for it. I'd have added another 3 or 4 on.


However, he's done his time. Good luck to him except when he plays Leeds.

Fantastic defence from the saints tonight

Turning into a very good weekend

Don't you mean "in the first 40"?

Defender makes poor read , attacking player scores shock!

In all my years of watching RL I'm sure this has happened before even to the best of players , and it will happen again.

Remind me, how many points did wire score in total? Someone must have been doing some defending at some point then?

Remind me how many hit ups the great Mose made v Leeds last night? I bet he's on far more money per carry than Clubb is.

Err... What?

You're saying that Ben Flower snapped because they were starting to lose the forward battle after two minutes (two minutes in which the other side never had possession)?

I'm afraid many of Sadend and his cronies blame Wane, even though it's obvious to any sane man that, Flower got a whack in the mush, and responded understandably with a whack in the mush to Hohia. What no one can expain, and that includes Ben Flower, is the second punch. No way is Wane to blame for the first or second punches, but his comments in the build up and the ridiculous documentary did him no favours.

Defend Wane all you want, but he doesn't help himself. Surely even you must be a little concerned that he said he expects more aggression from Flower! Is he expecting him to commence punching the children next??

No, he's expecting one of his prop to do his job - Run hard and hit hard. He's worried that with all the focus on him and his behaviour, he'll play soft, which is the worst thing a prop can do. Don't talk soft. Every coach from the kiddies up to the pros tells their big lads to be aggressive. I know a lot of people don't like Wigan, that's up to them, but it's absolute madness and unbelievable bias when someone hears a coach say to his prop "be aggressive" and think that it's permission to knock people out every game, which of course, Ben Flower did every time he stepped on the pitch, and not that one isolated incident..

Look at the way saints are now playing in their forwards under Cunningham. Far more aggressive. What do you think KC is asking his team to be? More gentlemanly?

You're both missing the point. He said he expects MORE aggression from somebody that's just served a 6 month ban for punching an unconscious player half his size...