Quote: St pete "Ain't you missing the point that he caused all this. He's on sky saying he didn't deserve the standing ovation he got as he let everybody down.'"
A couple of questions
1) Do you think it would have been more appropriate if he'd been booed when he came onto the pitch?
Given that his punishment had been served and that the player had expressed genuine remorse - and given that no serious injury had been done to his victim anyway - would it really have helped anyone, or even have been morally correct, to continue the punishment by treating the guy like dirt?
2) Would it have been possible for the crowd to just remain indifferent to his return?
That might have been the most politically correct response, but in reality - when the world's press had massively overblown the incident in order to use it against RL as a whole and in fact were there again hoping for more of the same, and thus creating a backs to the wall mentality - there was no chance the Wigan fans could have pretended nothing unusual was happening.
All clubs have players who tarnish the game's image. A St Helens fan ought to know that better than anyone. Emotions often run high in these situations. Masses of hot air gets blown. Unless the offender clearly indicates that his judgement will always be poor, that he won't learn from his mistakes - a la Hock - you're going to show solidarity with the guy when he's fully repented. That's human nature. It's not some kind of Wigan quirk.
