I agree with most of what you say. Hysteria/over-statement/being controversial for the sake of it has become a norm in a lot of social media.

With respect to James Graham, the biting incident has been relegated to memory because of the way in which he's distinguished himself as the best prop in the competition in the last two years. I'd hate to think Ben Flower won't have the same opportunity to let his rugby do the talking when he's served his ban.

I suppose this has been posted here because 25 ago Lowey was a great Wigan coach, and so this will make us all sit up and take notice.

I wouldn't take any more notice of Lowey now than Saints fans would take notice of Alex Murphy or Leeds fans of Gary Schofield.

Mind you, it's quite funny that it's apparently taken New Zealand five days to catch up with the rest of the world's news.

Did anyone ever take any notice of Gary Schofield?

Sorry mate, it was headline news here on Sunday (Saturday your time), including the lead story on the sports desk on the evening Sunday news. It's been debated at length on breakfast TV every morning and just about every sports talkback broadcast I've listened to. Guess we aren't as slow down here as you might like to think - we have got cars and street lights down here you know. Doh.

Quote: Singe "Sorry mate, it was headline news here on Sunday (Saturday your time), including the lead story on the sports desk on the evening Sunday news. It's been debated at length on breakfast TV every morning and just about every sports talkback broadcast I've listened to. Guess we aren't as slow down here as you might like to think - we have got cars and street lights down here you know. Doh.'" You're bragging that you've endlessly debated two punches in an RL match on the other side of the world for an entire week? Slow news days in NZ, eh? Or perhaps it's just plain old hypocrisy? Check out the lack of concern in the commentators' voices accompanying this incident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wakoZWSgXLY

Quote: Singe "Sorry mate, it was headline news here on Sunday (Saturday your time), including the lead story on the sports desk on the evening Sunday news. It's been debated at length on breakfast TV every morning and just about every sports talkback broadcast I've listened to. Guess we aren't as slow down here as you might like to think - we have got cars and street lights down here you know. Doh.'" You're bragging that you've endlessly debated two punches in an RL match on the other side of the world for an entire week? Slow news days in NZ, eh? Or perhaps it's just plain old hypocrisy? Check out the lack of concern in the commentators' voices accompanying this incident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wakoZWSgXLY

Lowe seems to have forgotten what Quentin Pongia did or the length of ban he served.

Quote: Singe "Bragging? not bragging at all, just pointing out that NZ aren't behind the times as you asserted. In fact as a rugby league supporter I've been disappointed it's been in the news so often. How you come to the conclusion I'm bragging is beyond me. Slow days in NZ? Nah, slow days in your brain seems more appropriate. Can't understand why there is a small group of people who are so determined to support an argument which is totally defenceless. What on earth has that you tube you linked to this got to do with the thuggery we saw at the weekend. I could come up with plenty of stuff (over a year old) which would put any country's commentators in poor light. Hey, why don't we watch Wane's pre-match efforts that spark all this hatred?'" The day RL coaches stop winding their players up before a match - and Graham Lowe was one of the fiercest of the lot - is the day they stop coaching. So that's that argument blown out of the water. The point is simple. Violence in RL is wrong. I haven’t said otherwise. When it happens, as it did last week, it should be dealt with by due process - which it has been. But when prats like you and, sadly, Graham Lowe, are still grandstanding about it a week later, that's when we're into the realm of glass houses and thrown stones. Plenty of NZ players (as exemplified by the link I posted) and plenty of St Helens players (as exemplified by this the video posted below) - and those two are just snapshots, let's face it - have used violence on the field. So don’t think you can keep on being holier-than-thou about it without everyone starting to realise you’re a bit of a phoney: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj57GvEj2DI

Quote: Singe "Bragging? not bragging at all, just pointing out that NZ aren't behind the times as you asserted. In fact as a rugby league supporter I've been disappointed it's been in the news so often. How you come to the conclusion I'm bragging is beyond me. Slow days in NZ? Nah, slow days in your brain seems more appropriate. Can't understand why there is a small group of people who are so determined to support an argument which is totally defenceless. What on earth has that you tube you linked to this got to do with the thuggery we saw at the weekend. I could come up with plenty of stuff (over a year old) which would put any country's commentators in poor light. Hey, why don't we watch Wane's pre-match efforts that spark all this hatred?'" The day RL coaches stop winding their players up before a match - and Graham Lowe was one of the fiercest of the lot - is the day they stop coaching. So that's that argument blown out of the water. The point is simple. Violence in RL is wrong. I haven’t said otherwise. When it happens, as it did last week, it should be dealt with by due process - which it has been. But when prats like you and, sadly, Graham Lowe, are still grandstanding about it a week later, that's when we're into the realm of glass houses and thrown stones. Plenty of NZ players (as exemplified by the link I posted) and plenty of St Helens players (as exemplified by this the video posted below) - and those two are just snapshots, let's face it - have used violence on the field. So don’t think you can keep on being holier-than-thou about it without everyone starting to realise you’re a bit of a phoney: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj57GvEj2DI

I'm interested that the Wane video from February keeps being brought up. He's obviously a really bad coach as its taken the entire season for someone to actually listen to him and "knock someone out". Maybe it's because the players are adults and actually understand what he is asking them to do in terms of being aggressive and not being bullied - rather than actually punch someone's light out?

Lenagan was asked about the video on the BBC the other night in a way to try and link the two events together. He said he was actually in the dressing room in NZ and on Saturday night and that the context of a rugby dressing room might need to be considered before the halfwits jump on the video bandwagon, especially given the editing process.

Looks like we are asking far too much of a lot of people.

You are being holier than thou, and you are grandstanding.

You're still talking about the 'thuggery at the weekend' - a week later. You're trying to link it to the Wigan coach (even though he only did what every RL coach does before a match). You readily dismiss other examples of violence, because it clearly doesn't suit your position to admit that RL can be a very violent game whatever colours you are wearing. And you accuse me of trying to defend an indefensible position, which I didn't. I've never once said that Flowers did right or didn't deserve his punishment.

You then try the amateur psychology thing - that this irritation with holy joe prats like you, who can't let anything drop, is actually a sign that we were unhappy to lose.

Sure I was unhappy to lose. But that doesn't mean you haven't been exposed as a phony.

You are defending it by your constant digging up of old events to try to justify the position. Nope still not grandstanding and still not holier than thou. Wane's pre-match talk down under was an embarrassment to the game. Maybe other coaches do it but he was stupid enough to allow the cameras in to watch it. We'll never know what was said before the Grand Final but Flower's actions suggest that a few thins certainly were.
Get over it, you sad, bitter little person. You're making yourself look silly now. There's always next season.

What was said by NB to get Hohaia so frothing at the mouth he attacked a prop with his elbow off the ball?

But it won't stop you commenting - again and again and again.

This whole outcry about Wane's pre-match talk at the WCC really is beginning to annoy me. As many have said, similar sentiments are conveyed every week both by rugby league and rugby union coaches, professional and amateur. Emotive and exaggerated language is used to gee up one's players and get them into an aggressive frame of mind. Nothing new at all - rugby has always been a very physical game.
I am not sure how many on here have ever seen the Sky reviews of the Lions Rugby Union tours - they tend to show them late at night every so often. The sentiments expressed and swearing in these videos is just as bad if not worse than anything Wane said. Listen to Jim Telfer (coach), Martin Johnson, Brian Moore and Dallalgio amongst others f...ing and blinding, " smash the f...ing c...ts, rip the ba....rds' heads off, break their f...ing legs" etc etc and - and some of it said by some surprising characters -Jerry Guscutt and I think even Jonny Wilkinson could be heard effing! This is what happens in a rugby changing room - it may offend people, but it happens!
This holier than thou attitude of some posters, particularly several Saints and Wire fans, on here is nauseating and simply hypocritical - or maybe it just reveals they do not know and understand as much about the game as they think........