Or the Wigan fans trying to deflect attention and blame by trying to over state Hohaia's previous involvement in the incident.

It could be, but since he says Lenagan will sort it IF he finds anything to sort it is as much a response to the witch hunters and a show of solidarity between the RL community, particularly that they will stand by Wigan, which says to me this is RL's issue and we'll sort it ourselves thank you very much. He could have gone the route of his less than classy coach and stuck the boot in with some bare allegations.

I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand the press by and large seem to have bought into it being reasonable / harsh, Daily Express an exception of those papers I have seen so far. The Christian forgiveness angle from Saints is good too. But, at the end of the day the number of matches banned for is too low. It suggests that player protection is being sacrificed - exactly what would warrant a large ban? I suspect they took into account the fact that it happened right at the start of the match when players are traditionally over-hyped up. Haven't they banned punching in Australia? If so, why not here?

Nah, it's ten games plus any others like internationals and friendlies.

Personally looking at the rules I thought it was an E charge. 4-8. Probably a 7 given his previous record.

But then those 7 I would have expected to be SL games. I think the fact it was the GF tipped it over to a grade F.
Whilst it was a vulgar strike, I would have thought 8 would have placated most Saints fans. Making it 10 games should make most people happy that it's been taken seriously.

Viewing the incident in full real time from above as shown on the bbc website clip you get a different perspective of this than the completely shocking slow motion image starting withFlower stood over Lance punching him in the eye.

The distance Flower gets knocked back, the speed and momentum between the first punch and the second - Flower didn't have time to do an awful lot of thinking between those two punches., he was already in motion with the second straight after the first.

It was bad, very bad, and the images that have been seen by the public are shocking. But it wasn't as bad as the frenzied mob have made out. The ones that have been able to view in slow mo, pore over the image of flower fist cocked over a prone player, looking as though he has taken second to line him up, deliberate and hit him.

He's got a very long ban, a record ban, a rep that will stick with him for the rest of his life, after having a pretty clean record to now.

I'm not really sure what some of the more hysterical posters on here want to do to the guy.

He's had death threats.

Ah, but 'they shouldn't be taken literally', you know, like the 'knock them out, be reckless, cause mayhem' instructions.... Only an idiot would think those sort of comments could be taken literally...

I agree completely
It was bad, he should have stopped before the second punch but he didn't, it was handled. End of.

The death threats are ridiculous and I hope they find them and prosecute them.

I'm not defending the crackpots that issued death threats but Ben Flower did instigate it.

Lets not forget that it's not the crackpots' fault Flower hit Hohaia. He should get a punishment for it too.

But I'm not excusing it in any way.

But yet you are

By saying I'm not excusing it doesn't mean your not excusing it.

"But Ben Flower did instigate it" Sounds like an excuse to me?



Did they send Death threats to Paul Wood? Ben Westwood? Jamie Peacock etc. etc. etc. etc.
So the above sounds like another excuse for them to me?



It's inexcuseable but you give the excuse that "they didn't start it".

I have to be honest, not sure what that last line means?
I'm not calling for a public hanging for anyone? Who have I asked for a public hanging for? Who have I slagged off?
The gnashing of teeth at Who? Who am I angry with???
I don't get what your saying I'm angry with?

It's clearly not an excuse.



So they have a previously clean record?



They didn't. I'm stating a FACT!



I'm glad it's up to the police and CPS to look into this and not you.

You should read the state of mind website before calling for people to be hung drawn and quartered.

Mostly its just people who like to tell everyone about their 'outrage'. Everyone's 'outraged' nowadays. Many, many, St. Helens fans (in fact ALL I've spoken to in person) have been very sensible about it. I read far more nonsense coming from over the Pennines. Of course, their standard is set by St. Kevin of Sinfield, so we should of course look to them for the sport's moral leadership.

I'm glad he'll be back in April, everyone loves a good pantomime villain.

I'm sure he'll good a lovely reception from all away grounds...