2012
Wigan dead and buried and Wane calls a hit on Ratchford...
It certainly had a coach's influence.

Yet Westwood has been one of our best for the past 2 weeks, and a key reason we've improved IMO.

Seen the tackle on TV now: terrible. Think he can expect 3-4 matches. I feel no sympathy for Leeds though as they similarly benefited last week from Ferres' sickening tackle (which he was lucky to escape with 6 from I thought).

My other main reflection: Smith was derived on here by some a few weeks back for saying luck was against us and contributing to our poor form (note contributing, not the sole cause like the Smith out obsessives might have us believe). However, you can see just what he meant last night. We could (and should) have played 79 minutes, not 10, with 12 men, and though we were much better it's hard to see how we'd have overcome that. The margins are small, and single decisions can swing games. It's not the only thing, but it can play a part, and it was nice to get the rub of the green last night; it might just have saved our season!

Seen it now Dezzie, not very pretty & completely unnecessary. A shame when he was one of our better forwards for the rest of the match.

A very honest opinion and if these 2 incidents had been treated correctly would have seen us win
IMO Wolves were the best side over the game

It will be interesting to see the outcome of Westwoods challenge after the recent lengthy suspensions handed out

Whether you condone the "Tackle" or not, RD is right. That one hit set the tempo for the rest of the game. Though they scored pretty much straight afterwards, every Wire player stepped up in aggression and it showed.

It clearly was tactical as well because in that first half instead of seeing charge-downs we saw forwards charging at the kicker and sitting them on their backside. Every leeds player who ended up with the ball on the last tackle was feared to death. And if you think a coach won't be including "The first bloke kicking the ball on the 5th, F****** give it him and make sure he doesn't want to get it again." into his pre-match speech then you're a fool.

Yeah he'll probably get a ban but that sort of hit is exactly the type of aggression our forwards have been lacking for a good while. I'm not saying we should go round hitting men off the ball and getting a player banned every week but we should be getting hold of the playmakers and burying them into the grass. We're a big pack, It's time we started enforcing it. We've been saying for so long now that as a team we're 'too nice'. The teams that win aren't nice in the forwards. They're nasty and aggressive and allow the backs to play off of that. That one tackle could have just kick started our season.

It's Rugby league. A hard game that at the minute is becoming quite diluted and soft by outraged 'Will somebody please think of the children' types.

"It clearly was tactical as well because in that first half instead of seeing charge-downs we saw forwards charging at the kicker and sitting them on their backside. Every leeds player who ended up with the ball on the last tackle was feared to death. And if you think a coach won't be including "The first bloke kicking the ball on the 5th, F****** give it him and make sure he doesn't want to get it again." into his pre-match speech then you're a fool."

Total rubbish and completely out of touch with reality of the modern game. Dream on.

Moving on is right.
Minute 1 a hit on arguably the biggest threat for leeds with ball in hand and foot.

Nobody has been condoning, even myself, but I am justifying it.
Like it or not, it was completely effective bar 0-4 for 10 mins which in my eyes was nothing more that collateral.

Not quite sure he is the best player Leeds have got with ball in hand or on foot. I just think that he was the one who made the first kick and "the tone was set". Lest face it he hasn't been getting a game in the halves where generally the best ball handlers and kickers play.

I will turn your attention to Shaun Wayne's half time speech in the WCC. I think it's you who is out of touch. RL will ALWAYS be a tough and simple game.

- Run hard.
- Hit hard.
- Target the play makers.
- Pressure the kickers.

Why else would Westwood be steaming into him at that speed? Wake up. Hill also took two of the kickers out off the ball and easily could've been penalised, Sims also. The game plan was simple. take out their last play options.

Hard to see how we lost so many in a row really. Why didn't we adopt such a straightforward and comprehensive game plan half way through the Catalans game? We'd be top of the league now!

It's a nice attempt at sarcasm but its funny how we did all of what I mentioned last week and won compared to doing none of what I mentioned in previous games and losing.

Whether you agree or not doesn't affect my opinion that one player showing a bit of aggression inspired others to do the same.

I shudder to think what the modern day fan would say had they witnessed Nicolas, Mills, Karalius, Sorensen, Boyd, Skerret, Ward et al

some very strange opinions in here on what went on... Do people honestly think Tony Smith is telling people to go out and do what Westwood did?

Smith will have said "go out there and put some pressure on the kicker early doors, lets put some doubt in their minds"

Benny Westwood, who lets be honest, isnt the sharpest tool in the box and loves a bit of a sly dig, rushed in, knew he was late but simply couldn't help himself.. the brain cell flickered for a minute, then the arm came up and WHAMO... swinging arm into the face of a kicker when the ball has long gone... There is no 'marginal' about it.

YES the hit set the tone for the game and YES it played a big part in us winning... But he should have been sent off and we would be looking at it in a very different light had it been dealt with properly.

I would guess that makes 3 of us.
Bring back the biff!

Yep.

All this harping on about "We don't need this in our game" or "For any youngsters watching, we don't like to see this"

Utter rubbish. I payed money to watch 26 blokes smash into each other and I expect to see blood. First the shoulder charge, then punching becomes a red card.... May as well watch netball if we keep watering the game down.

This is a sport where we build men (and women) into the physiques of body builders, spend most their week in the gym filling them to the brim with testosterone, train them to run into 40mph car crashes, get them revved up to boiling point before a game where they will be faced with situations that require split second decision making and expect them to behave like choir boys and then express utter outrage when something like this happens.

It's ridiculous.