I see that Michael Shenton might be out for the rest of the season after the tackle on him on Sunday. There were two cowardly attacks to the legs by a Widnes defender on Sunday, both of which went unpunished.

This has to be the year these are clamped down on. They are cowardly and add nothing to the game. It's so simple: you cannot tackle below the shorts if you are third man in. Why not even ban a third man? Reward strong attack rather than gang tackles. Concentrating on the cannonball tackles is not enough. Both tackles on Sunday involved the player being bent right back.

I agree. Both tackles were bad.

I don't know any coach who coaches players to attack the knees, the target area for the third man is hip and upper thigh, sliding down to clamp the legs at the knee and upper calf area which removes the possibility of further leg drive.

Tackles that cause knee injuries are more likely to be the result of poor technique or the player getting it wrong. The third cause is a player who actively goes out to injure another player as we saw with Rangi Chase on Brett Ferres last year. Short of changing the rules so that we're playing touch & pass, I'm not sure what you can do to stop a vindictive rogue player from causing such injuries.

Remove the risk of poor technique by penalising poor technique as opposed to deliberate foul play. Take the two tackles on Sunday. They were both dangerous, albeit not intended to be so, and neither were penalised. In each case, they added nothing to the spectacle of the game.

It's not the area of the tackle of the problem but the fact that it can go against the direction of the players dealing with the upper body. That was the problem on Sunday. You've got players pushing the player backwards, and then twice a Widnes defender came in to take his legs from under him, causing the player to collapse backwards with his legs under him.

There is nothing tough about attacking the legs of a player unable to defend himself. I would consider banning a third man altogether. Reward a strong runner, keep the game flowing.

Think that any tackles which involves applying force onto a joint which the joints function does not normally perform e.g the knee joint allows flexion, extension and medial rotation of the lower limb but does not allow abduction or adduction thus player who hit from the side should be punished as this can cause many problems for the athlete targeted.
I don't mind gang tackling and limiting players in a tackle wouldn't improve the game IMO.

So long as the third man in makes impact above the knee it should be ok.

Knee level or below should be a penalty as in the NRL.

That would apply to initial tackle technique but 3rd man tackling is exactly that. The body is already covered. Third man job is to clamp the legs together to stop leg drive. Grabbing thighs doesn't help you do that. Clamping knees does that.
The mistake is hitting them with shoulder like a normal tackle before grabbing. You a should clamp without driving in. Otherwise for me it's a cannon ball style. Fast or not.

I don't buy that; Wigan's much publicised 'chop the tree' technique is quite clearly designed to cause injury - it started with Michael Maguire and doesn't seem to have abated under Shaun Wane. That's coached.

I've been arguing for a long time that the NRL import of holding the man up then chopping him to ribbons as each tackler joins the fray is unacceptable; it's ugly, dangerous and has a negative impact on the game - not least as a spectacle.

I didn't say grabbing thighs, I said the target for shoulder contact is hip and upper thigh then sliding down to clamp at the knee or upper calf.

It's done because it's effective ie when done properly it works

Mmm
Not so sure,

I think it suits Wigan for everyone to believe that they'll target your knees when in actual fact they coach anything but.

Leeds in particular are beaten in their minds because they believe Wigan will go after their knees if they try to stand in the tackle and look for an offload, hence you get Rhino players trying to get to ground where they'd normally make extra metres or offload.

Wigan play it tough and physical and I don't like Sean Wane but I don't see evidence of a coached practice of deliberately targeting knee joints.

True to an extent - they'll also target your head (observe the antics of their skipper for starters, and Liam Farrell) and will put excessive force on your joints - their young ingénue Williams was caught out twice last season doing just that, so it can hardly be blamed on an old school attitude. And weren't there some pictures from the dressing room leaked a few seasons ago, instructing their players to 'snap the pole?'

I genuinely dislike the way Wigan have been allowed to take over the ruck - being tackled by them is akin to a mugging and as is the way with these things, it's spread to other clubs. I'd love to see a crackdown - but it won't happen.

Saw the Boudebza tackle on Shenton last night, the camera was quite a way away but it looked similar to the one that Collis got pulled for on Gaskell.

i have just seen the tackle on Shenton again, and to be honest, I didn't see too much wrong with it. I think more than anything, he was sliding to the floor and twisted awkwardly. Lets face it this time of the year, and given the weather conditions in Hull on Sunday, players were sliding about.

Would all the fuss have been made had Shenton not unfortunately got injured?

What next with Super League, glorified touch and pass?

If I was Boudebza, and HKR, I would be appealing after this.

My views on Powell after this, and his rant afterwards, has gone downhill

Seriously? So he going to say, oh it's ok he didn't mean it etc etc. 3rd man in, lost his grip and went back in and used his thigh to put pressure on his leg. Watch the video again and Shenton tries to see who did it, even when he was being helped off. We don't give a stuff what you think of Powell, simply trying to protect his players, exactly what BS would have done.

If you thought the tackle was innocuous surely you would have said you did not see anything wrong with it and not I did not see much wrong with it, intimating that you at least thought there was some degree of recklessness in it.
If Shenton had not got badly injured then surely there would be nothing to complain about rendering Powell's complaint academic.
We have been complaining in this thread about a couple reckless challenges on our players in the Widnes game which could have had serious complications both for the players and to a lesser degree the club, and you chose to trivialise the matter with a flippant remark like what next glorified touch and pass, I'll bet Ferres had wished they were playing touch and pass last season when Rancid Chase done the dirty on him.