Phuzzy wrote:
Getting really sick of the Hohaia apologists now and their 'Flower started it in back play' mantra. I'm not going over the same ground (see previous post) but are you saying every penalty on a rugby field should result in those offended against running 10 metres or so to elbow someone in the face? Get a grip man! And before you say he wasn't elbowed in the face again, I suggest you Google 'Lance Hohaia elbow'. It's really not that difficult!
You are factually inaccurate. Hohaia used a forearm to the face, not an elbow, and that is what he received a one match ban for. The Sky footage quite clearly shows Flower push Hohaia in the back off the ball hard enough for Hohaia to fall over after which Hohaia ran after Flower and forearmed him in the face. There are no Hohaia apologists; but there are deluded people like yourself who think that Flower's actions were somehow justified or lessened by the fact that Hohaia responded with a forearm to the face to being pushed over off the ball (something the referee should have dealt with at the time).
I think Flower has been lucky myself. He was charged by Wigan with gross misconduct. In any career that equates to dismissal.
Whether anyone likes it or not Flower exposed the sport to national scrutiny and any follow up from Wigan had to reflect the degree of that scrutiny because that is the degree to which Wigan have to repair his and their reputations. Two versions of Flower's punches to Hohaia have been seen by over one and a half million people each on YouTube alone. Add to that pictures in every online news agency and print publication plus the footage on 24 hour TV news bulletins here and abroad as well as the audience for the match itself and that is significant damage done to the reputation of Ben Flower and, by association, Wigan (and the sport as a whole if the kind of discussions that went on in the aftermath are anything to go by).