Give over FTV! Unless you're trying to tell us that none of your coaches has ever said something similar when trying to fire up his players? I very much doubt you'd need to go back further than your current one (sic) given his statements after the Good Friday defeat.

Yes his reply is one of i am now done thinking and must attempt to save face. But made himself look even worse.

No, no, no, he said them he just didn't mean them. . . . . apparently.



This would ordinarily be treated as one player having a meltdown. However, through having a coach who is stupid enough to go on record telling his players to act outside of the rules and knock people out, the Wigan club is standing trial alongside the player.



Wane has a lot to answer for, he lost you the game by being unable to instil discipline in his players and he has created a situation where the club can be perceived as having a culture which allows these behaviours.

If he can't instill discipline why aren't we getting 2/3 players a week sent off?

I'm not sure you can argue that a team talk given months ago is suddenly remembered by Ben Flower the moment before he punches an unconscious player.

However, if this is a regular message that the coach gives to his players, it could be argued that he has cultivated a violent and unacceptable mindset amongst the players.

As he hasn't let cameras (with audio) into the Wigan dressing room again, it's something we'll never know.

As an aside, I can't believe any coach would allow filming inside a dressing room (particularly if this is the sort of thing he is going to say).

Yes repeatedly stabbing them would be a problem in the eyes of the law. It's the repeated bit that's the problem. You can only use reasonable force to defend yourself. That is where Flower went wrong. His first punch would probably have resulted in a penalty. What he then did was hit an unconscious man on the ground. I don't know where the cold blooded bit comes in as we are discussing things happening in the heat of the moment. You then resort as usual to abuse so I will leave it there.

Or to but it in context; have you never said something like ''I'd kill him for that'' (or something similar)? Did you mean you'd actually kill him? I'm guessing not. Wane was trying to fire his team up and used emotive language. He didn't mean for his players to go out and attack someone in the manner Flower did yesterday. In fact, as I remember, there were no 'unsavoury' incidents in that particular game. How was that the case if he sent them out to do that? To be honest I'm sure you, and all the other posters currently jumping on this particular bandwagon, are already aware that this is utterly ridiculous. I would certainly hope so anyway.

This is the point in which people should put away their pitchforks, call off the Witch hunts, let the rfl do their job and put this all to bed.

He knows the consequences of his actions, he knows how he has let people and himself down.

Put this in the history books, and leave him alone, he's a young lad at the end of the day, can anyone of us say we haven't let ourselves down in our life? He's just unfortunately had his moment in front of the national media, leave him alone and let him geton with his eextended off season, carrying on could be detrimental to his mental health and no one wants people in a situation like Terry Newton, this witch hunt is the type of thing that can send people over the edge.

I agree with you (I'm not a Wigan supporter BTW

) the public viewing of the video is, shall we say, a tad unfortunate, a PR disaster of substantial scale, the sort of thing that SHOULD have the Wigan board of directors pulling their hair out and wondering how the hell they ever agreed to do this, its a classic shot to the foot and is an embarrassment of all who are involved.



Without the video I agree, you have one player who had the red mist and did something very stupid, he gets punished and the club are not connected to his stupidity in any way, with the video in the public domain prior to the game with the approval of the board you suddenly elevate the incident to a tacit agreement and no amount of humble apologies after the event can change what was publically said in that dressing room by the head coach.

Great post Yed and total respect for you as well.

This has been my point all along, he's messed up a major way, he's apologised, it's an isolated incident by one player, not a season full of career ending cheap shots like all the band wagon jumpers are claiming.



It's an isolated incident, let the lad try and make up for it.

Well said Yed! At last, a bit of sanity. It was bad. We all know that as, I'm sure, does Flower. Some of the stuff being said on the back of that is bordering on the hysterical. As bad as it was, I think we need to remember that it's not like it was the worst injury ever inflicted on a rugby field. Hohaia is perfectly alright the last I heard!