There were 3 players in that tackle, so I assume Warrington are accusing all 3 players in those 2-3 seconds of co-ordinating the tackle to put him into that position.

This is part of the Wrestling technique that has come into the game, the player with the ball resists going down, the players pull and tug the play to pull them to ground. No one is coordinating the player into this position, it was just the result of all those players in the tackle doing their best to both effect and resist the tackle.

If there was something in it the RFL would have no issue in bringing Saints before the beak. Amor got pinged for a crusher tackle and did we moan about it? No Saints fans generally said it was clumsy but he deserved the 2 matches.

So at which training session did those 3 players decided to get together to coordinate this intricate tackle? And Why did they pick Evans as opposed to Hill to take out of the game?

Are you an idiot, or just pretending to be one!
If you read Smiths comments not once does he say it's deliberate, and I agree with his comments, it could have been any player on the pitch including any saints player, player welfare is of paramount importance so any technique that potentially could injure needs to be looked at. Take your red and white tinted glasses of fool!

No saints fan or coach seem capable of reading smith's quote correctly. It's a little embarrassing to be honest.

Oh c'mon. You must know your coach better than that by now. Smith is never direct in any of his criticisms. He is like McDermott of Leeds for that. Smith will slip in a dig rather than take the blunt approach. It was quite clear to anyone listening that Smith was criticising that particular tackle otherwise why on earth should he refer to it specifically?

For what it's worth I think Cunningham was too blunt in his response and he comes across as a tad arrogant at present, which is unfortunate. I would imagine a season in charge will change that. But I do agree that it was a little unprofessional of Smith to highlight a specific tackle and insinuate that there was something particular about that tackle. If he wants to raise a disciplinary matter then he does so with the RFL; not in the media.

He wasn't, he was ranting about that one incident in particular. If he thinks there was any intent to cause injury he's way off the mark. It was unusual for Smith, he's not usually like that. There is a huge difference between what Saints did to Evans and things like cannonball tackles or chicken wings. I've watched the game for 30 years now and have never seen an injury like Evans's. It was a freak outcome to what isn't generally a dangerous technique. Everyone team does it in modern rugby league, you lift the leg to turn the player to face him away from your own line with the intention of slowing the play the ball down. It happens when the ball carrier has lost momentum and is stopped or stopping.

Smith is just wrong on this one. He himself had his own angelic troops doing wrestling training on Sky Sports News before the start of this season.

Like talking to a brickwall.

Smith doesn't moan about the particular tackle during the game but the tackle technique in general. Read his quote numbnuts.

Also, the style we practiced in preseason was getting off the floor quicker, watch the video.

Bingo.

So you're admitting he wasn't moaning about the tackle outright, so now you're trying to tell us you can read Smith's thoughts?

Jeeze, even when you put another one of our players out of action for months you still make it so that your team is the victim.

Love the insults. I get the point you are making, but he is clearly talking about this incident, saying the technique they used is likely to cause injury and it's a nasty technique. There is a clear link to intent there, no matter how you try to wrap it up like a politicians PR team. My point is that it's not a dangerous technique, Warrington players do it, players from all teams do it and the injury to Ben was a freak injury. This really is a nothing incident.

The issue here is that TS has raised this with the RFL and they have decided that they do not want to do anything to stop these wrestling techniques. We are continually seeing players being held up by two opponents to allow one or more players to come in and wrestle them. What happened to tackling someone and taking them to ground?

Season over according to TS on the Super League Show.

When was the last time someone suffered an injury because of a 'wishbone tackle', as he described it? I can't think of any at all from memory.

Lifting the legs of a standing player to get them to ground has been around for ages and I don't see why that's any more dangerous than a standard tackle? It's likely that a Warrington player will do this in their match this weekend.

I find his comments a little over the top. What does he want the RFL to do exactly? Ban defenders from touching legs in the tackle? Talk about being over cautious. Let's just stop tackling and just play tag.

It was just a compete accident and I don't know why he found it necessary to even bring it up straight after the game. That's probably why Cunningham was so defensive about it.

Hope Evans has a good recovery. Those pics look nasty.

I think the underlying problem lies with the RFL, if you remember about 4 years ago they wanted to stop these blow out scores in Superleague so they allowed the refs to police a much slower play the ball in the hope defences would be set and we would see less opportunites for teams to get momentum for long periods.

The Wigoons then took it one level level further with wrestling technique on joints and a slower exit from the play the ball.

We probably need to revert to a much quicker play the ball to reduce the Evans incidents occuring on a regular basis. Will the RFL do this or will they wait for more injuries before they start to take action.

Devils advocate here.

Is it possible that Ben didn't help himself by resisting being tackled to the floor.
At the time I remember thinking that he was getting himself in a more and more Awkward position as the tackle went on.

Maybe, with hindsight, he should have succumbed to the tackle earlier got up and played the ball.

Trying to stay on your feet with 3 big defenders hanging on to you is never going to end well.

I wish Ben a speedy and full recovery.

He has had some wretched bad luck with injuries.

He was playing some really good stuff before injury last year and I was looking forward to him getting back to that form again this year.