Just got motion sickness watching the pre match press conference and thought I'd gone deaf. Does everything this sport does have to be so amateurish. Also Woolf thinks the situation this week has been handled well.
he got off on a technicality due to a sharp lawyer. it was a chicken wing tackle. the only people who think differently are the odd saints fan
He got off because the disciplinary eventually agreed with the on field and video ref who gave penalty and yellow card, because it wasn’t dangerous. The “technicality” only existed because the Grade B charge and subsequent appeal outcome made no sense in the circumstances.
It really wasn’t a chicken wing no matter how many times you say it was. We all know what they look like and it’s not like this (there’s a video of Lee Smith attempting three in one game on YouTube if you’d like a reminder) - compare and contrast intent and force used. When you line them up side by side one is grabbing a wrist and messing around at the PTB and a professional foul and the other is using your body weight to endanger an opponent.
When you stand back from all the furore, what you’re left with is people saying they are going to quit the sport, the game is corrupt, it’s a disgrace . . . . that a player didn’t get a two game ban for holding someone’s wrist in a position that wasn’t dangerous to slow a PTB. I mean, come on.
He got off because the disciplinary eventually agreed with the on field and video ref who gave penalty and yellow card, because it wasn’t dangerous. The “technicality” only existed because the Grade B charge and subsequent appeal outcome made no sense in the circumstances.
It really wasn’t a chicken wing no matter how many times you say it was. We all know what they look like and it’s not like this (there’s a video of Lee Smith attempting three in one game on YouTube if you’d like a reminder) - compare and contrast intent and force used. When you line them up side by side one is grabbing a wrist and messing around at the PTB and a professional foul and the other is using your body weight to endanger an opponent.
When you stand back from all the furore, what you’re left with is people saying they are going to quit the sport, the game is corrupt, it’s a disgrace . . . . that a player didn’t get a two game ban for holding someone’s wrist in a position that wasn’t dangerous to slow a PTB. I mean, come on.
You seem like a reasonable chap and you obviously know your Rugby, but I think you're looking at this through red and white glasses. The act of foul play, and subsequent lifting of the ban has attracted dismay from all corners of the sport - some (not all) Saints supporters excepting. If you want to see round the back police type restraining holds legitimised in the sport you re are in the wrong, if you don't you are in the right. Seems pretty simple to me. By the way, I don't think Knowles is a dirty player and I certainly don't think he intented harm. However, you have to draw the line somewhere.The RFL seem incapable of doing that.
When you stand back from all the furore, what you’re left with is people saying they are going to quit the sport, the game is corrupt, it’s a disgrace . . . . that a player didn’t get a two game ban for holding someone’s wrist in a position that wasn’t dangerous to slow a PTB. I mean, come on.
It's a inexcusable result of a disastrously run system that has seen players incorrectly banned or otherwise inconsistently treated throughout the year.
Many Leeds fans were right on the edge of giving up following the three games Martin was banned for. It's close to a miracle that they didn't end Leeds' season.
This joke of a result, the overturning of what was for once a clear and justifiable ban for ugly foul play, will have a material effect on the sport's biggest event and who will be champions. And you pretend to innocently wonder why people have had enough?
There's talk that St Helens aren't to blame. I disagree, nobody forced them to chuck a hand grenade into the disciplinary system. They decided to do it despite agreeing it was foul play. They lost the appeal but saw a way to worm out of a ban on a technicality. The second appeal didn't find Knowles innocent, it agreed that the wording of the first appeal wasn't quite correct in its summation.
Incompetence at the RFL yes, but it was desperately cynical by St Helens to try and exploit it so that no ban would remain, effectively blowing up the system to get Knowles off.
It's a move which will both forever hang over their Grand Final win but more importantly has soured the views of thousands of people of our sport just when it needed them to be engaged ahead of the World Cup. Enjoy your ill gotten gains FTV, I hope you think it's worth it.