Where I work there are about 70 staff and three of us are RL fans. Usually there'd be very little talk of RL week-to-week, yet today there was loads. I reckon twenty people must have commented on it to me today.

"Nice" to see the Beeb didn't let me down.
48 hours after the event, and it's lead item on the 4 p.m. sports news on Radio 2, and top item on on their internet site. Had we or Wigan or Leeds signed someone like Cameron Smith or Billy Slater, do we think that would afford such lofty publicity? Not a chance. It might have got the last mention, after breaking news of Rooney's latest hair transplant and another inspirational press conference from Andy Murray.

The Beeb really don't like our sport.

Surely Wayne has a case to answer for the video in which he is giving a half time pep talk to his players and urging them to knock opponents out ? I've only just seen the video and it's a damning indictment of his tactics....He should be up before the beak as well as his thug.

F for Flower F for F grade charge Min 8 matches www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/o ... -st-helens

F for Flower F for F grade charge Min 8 matches www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/o ... -st-helens

I've had a few
"Oh you like rugby league don't you, did you see the guy that punched the other guy" type conversations today.

Daily Mash even did an article

rlhttp://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/rugby-union-afraid-of-rugby-league-2014101391646rl

I'd ban him for a year, the two things I hate about Wigabs tactics are the 4th man in attacking the standing leg, and the very late shots.

I wonder how this would have been treated if it had happened at the start of a State of Origin match.

The commentators would have been loving it "ooooh look at that, right on his melon!" and there would have been a 2 minute all in brawl, it would have had 500,000 views on youtube by the end of the day and would go down in legend as one of the all time great biffs and further evidence as to what State against State means.

It somehow seems fairly pointless to give him a hefty ban. He (probably) cost his side a GF win, and since any ban will be for next season, allowing Wigan 4 months to plan for his absence, the impact will be minimal.

Ok what he did was disgraceful and cannot be condoned, but I can't see how anybody benefits, or is really penalised, by a ban which will commence next season.

Agree with this, the whole talk was cringeworthy and no coach should be telling their players to go knock the f*** out of someone!

Ten match ban. ... Make it double digit to satisfy the outraged. ..

And a one match ban for hohia which he can EGP so as to not miss a match. .... if he's not punished it will be open season on elbowing someone off the ball.

I agree with Sallys comment above about if it was Origin. ..I wanted to mention this to the "outraged" on Twitter like Andrew Voss et al... they are almost in despair over their when a brawl happens in the NRL Because its all push and shove and no one throws any punches. Yet as soon as a pom does it he's a grub or a thug.
one even compared it to russel packers assault that got him sent to jail despite that being in a night club and he stamped on the blokes head. ...

Some massive over reactions by some people. ..

Let's hope this doesn't happen in the four nations. ...I imagine a few more eyes will be on this event ..... and we don't want that do we

There has been a massive over reaction to this but the publicity is great for the sport, people pretend that they are outraged but they loved seeing a bit of biff in RL again as the resulting publicity proves.

I cant take anything a footballer says seriously as if a convicted rapist can start playing football again then who are they to look at our sport with fake outrage, but they only seem to add to the publicity as Twitter is the go to place for high profile opinions on this matter for some reason!

The second punch was out of order and he will be rightly banned for a long time but he has apologised and lost his team the GF against their biggest rivals!

+1
Just rewards, had that had gone on report, Wane wouldn't be giving a hoot!
Had that had have been Hock there would be no apology either.
It matters little now he's apolologised that he gets a lengthy ban or not as the spoils rightly went to Sts, the panel should take that into consideration. It seems unfare that he receives the same ban as Hock!

Very surpised at the decisions of the disciplinary panel.
Bowen, O'Loughlin and Powell all escape further punishment. Wigan mustn't be a dirty team then.....

Joking aside, I am worried about the way things are going.
Powell will deservedly get a big ban but the RFL can hardly do anything else in the circumstances.
Some of those other decisons though.... would you really want your son or daughter playing anything other than touch rugby in the current atmosphere?