Lance Hohaia retires

Quote: goobervision "So in your eyes LH did nothing? I'm pretty sure that he committed an assault and from there retaliation falls towards self defense. To put it simply, elbow me in the head and I won't get a slap on the wrist from the law for retaliation.

That said, talk of the police is nonsense. Its pretty clear that you and your mate can walk into someones home, attack them, be caught on camera and not only do the press barely care but neither do the club, governing body or fans.

I really struggle with the fact that Flower is lambasted for retaliation in a match. Hardacre and friend get very little for going into someone's home and assaulting them!!!'"

Where did I say he did nothing?
I said that LH shoved his forearm (NOT ELBOW) toward Flower, that was in reaction to Flower shoving him further downfield, or are you saying that Flower didn't actually make contact with LH in the first instance in which case there is little point going on with the discussion if you can't accept that Flower was the instigator from the off.

The talk of the police is not a nonsense, and in the case of someone coming into your home and attacking you and nobody caring, what a load of twaddle, are you for real or just have a screw loose? The Hardaker case is completely different, it didn't leave someone unconscious on the floor whom was then punched again or where you there and saw everything? In the BF case it's completely clear what happened, you just can't accept those FACTS.

What the press have to do with anything I don't know, that's got nothing to do with what the police do if they are told of an attack, ABH or GBH, it is their duty to investigate. In this case despite it being on the rugby field there is a clear case for ABH.

Check out for yourself and you'll see plenty of cases where players have actually being given prison sentences for similar.
Here are a few I found in 20 seconds
www.bristolpost.co.uk/Keynsham-R ... story.html
www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/1 ... ter_match/
Suspended sentence- www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/ ... jail_term/
As I said, it would be the second punch on an already unconscious person that would be enough to get a clear ABH and by the letter of the law it is GBH. The first punch might by some be considered self defence but it just isn't, the two shoves previous offset each other, the haymaker thrown by flower that did the damage by knocking LH unconscious is not by any stretch of the imagination self defence, the second punch is beyond belief.
But as I said, it's all irrelevant, LH didn't want anything doing about it, that's his shout, the police if they had had any balls should have done him anyway.
It would have sent a clear message that assault on the rugby field is just not acceptable just because you feel the need to dish out dis-proportionate revenge..Lee Radford's attack on a prone Bailey a couple of years ago is another prime example of a cowardly attack.
HTH