at least one of the officials did see the incident though, otherwise why were the yellow cards produced

I was gonna say the same.

3 punches like that, especially the third, I'd suggest most people would be on the floor after that. You can see how much of his weight Tuilangi puts into it. My uncle is a boxing coach and he's always said to me that the sign of a real good kid in the class is the ability to take a punch far more than it is to give one. You can improve strength, and punching technique with practice, but a natural ability to stay on your feet when somebody is smacking you in the head certainly helps!

Stop stating the bloody obvious here.

Wheels did his usual bunny hop into the dirty stuff without thinking, and McLaren latched on to the support.

The fact you saw the obvious without emotion is irrelevant.

bill shankley was once having a go after a game at referee jack taylor for missing something. i'm sorry, taylor said, my mind was on an operation i,m having next week.
hope it's not serious said shanks.
no, said taylor, i,m having eyes put in my f**king

He saw his version of events from approx 30/40 feet away, what he thought he saw was retaliation and a punch swung by Ashton whereas in fact it was Ashton raising his arm to defend himself presumably against another punch. The TJ saw enough to tell the ref to yellow card both players for throwing punches, he presumably did not see enough detail to stand Tuilangi in the dock and try him for a vicious assault.

In the real world thats what happens, maybe the TJ was distracted by the ongoing play, RU does not have convenient breaks in open play - thats the real world and thats why such incidents are often dealt with by the discipline committee and why the match officials cannot be held responsible for every action that takes place on the field within the 80 minutes of play, they do their best - how many "On Report" incidences do we have in SL every week ?

In Gotcha's La-La land of kneejerkery its always the referees fault and Gotcha can always do a better job what with the power of the eyes in the [iar[/ise.

Emotion? I couldn't care less if Tuilagi got 12 months or 12 days.

The lino (from 40ish yards away), saw Ashton raise his arms out of the corner of his eye, and Tuilagi retaliate in kind.

A yellow each is fine based on what the one official saw, and the disciplinary board took further action as they saw fit.

I'm not quite sure how the referee deserves a long ban after following standard procedure to the tee (which has served both codes of the game just fine up until your little hissy fit).

You Gotcha, as ever did your usual little bunny hop into the dirty stuff not without thinking, but with a huge knee-jerking amount of tedness.

I can understand the ref being unsighted because he was following the ball, but IMO there was no excuse to the Touch Judge. He should have seen but failed to make the correct call. Even if he thought Ashton had thrown a punch, he still should have recommended to the ref a red card for Tuilango for that brutal OTT third punch. Certainly the TJ should face a charge of gross incompetence.

No, the one brought up as a daughter, Olotuli, is an absolute leviathan. He is bigger than Manu and Alesana put together. About half again as big as Henry.

You see him shopping in Leicester occasionally. It takes a lot to put Martin Johnson in the shade, but he does it, well.

Good god there's some over-reaction on this thread. It was a punch up, was it any worse than the Fielden/Peacock v Mason? Or even Brent Webb v Richard Moore?

The fact that Tuilagi managed to land a good punch means he should be punished more than those who are cr@p at punching?

As has been said it's similar to the Fielden v Mason incident in that the soft little white boy pushed the big nasty foreign man away, who being a bit tougher assumed that it was an attempted punch and so the big nasty foreign man proceeded to knock seven shades out of the soft little white boy.

These are professional players getting paid well. If there's a bit of fisticuffs then so be it. It wasn't some cowardly attack when the other player's back was turned, or the disgraceful habit in Union of raking or stamping on people on the floor, or eye-gouging which seems more prevalent in Union for some reason. It was a punch-up, 1-on-1.

A ban, yes. 5 weeks is probably about right. In League I'd expect about a 3 game ban.

Also to the people who are blaming the officials, I'm assuming they haven't done much officiating. Try just getting a knock-on call correct from 10m away nevermind as to who punched who first from 40m away.

100% agree. It was a bit of biff on the rugby pitch ffs! It doesn't matter how brutal the punches looked, the same things happens a dozen times per season in league. When players fight they intend to connect so sweetly as Tuilangi did, whether or not they come off is irrelevant, the intention is there. Ashton got involved in the confrontation by shoving Tuilangi therefore opening yourself up to a bit of biff. I don't know what all the fuss is about tbh...

Bit of Biff

thats all, Ashton went looking and got a pasting

Well said.

Reminded me of Ben Westwood getting his handed to him by Viane.

Saw an interview with Ashton today on Sky Sports News. They shook hands at the end of the match and he said that was the end of it as far as he was concerned.

Full respect to the bloke. Shows the difference between rugby players and footballers. No diving on the floor, no whining, no crying afterwards. Just mutual respect.

Thats how it should be, was an on the field incident, bit of biff. It happens in games of both codes.

Yep nothing wrong with a bit of straight up biff. I'd much rather see this than a chicken wing tackle or some of the other ethically questionably tackling techniques that have made there way into our game in recent years.

BTW the "big nasty foreign man" in this case is expected to win a full England cap soon...

...[url=http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/TIGERS-MANU-WINS-FIGHT-STAY-UK/article-2387635-detail/article.htmldespite the fact that he was nearly deported last year for not having a valid visa[/url

Tuilangi isn't even a forward either

I couldn't really care less what the discipline panel say and I'm more interested in the on-field decision. To me, this is the view the TJ would have had:

1. Tuilangi puts an off the ball hit on Aston. IMO it's not high like the t commentator says, it's around the chest.
2. Ashton gets up and reacts.
3. Tuilangi takes exception to this and throws a few (pretty decent) shots and lands with them.
4. Ashton attempts to throw a punch IMO. His arms are flailing and they don't just look like an attempt to defend himself.

If Tuilangi was given a red, so should Ashton. The TJ saw man-on-man confrontation and each is equally guilty and as such, sin-binnings for both were given. Ashton shouldn't get away with it cause he can't land a punch.

Bizarre. When the punches start to reign down Ashton never raises his arms, not even to deflect the punches, more fool him.

Ashton was very unlucky to get a yellow. He was tackled off the ball, reacted and then got assaulted.

I'm amazed how anyone can call it a bit of biff. It's nothing like a bit of biff, nothing like the Fielden and Mason bust up.

In this case it was an unprovoked attack to the head. The guy should be facing assault charges.

I should clarify, I do also like a bit of handbags in games myself, but two players stood toe to toe ready for it and slugging out. This was nothing of the sort.

It was exactly the sort of attack that happens in pubs and clubs across the country where someone ends up dying from.

Interesting this morning, when people are comparing how good to football. The Robbie Savaga column this morning makes an issue out of this incident, calling it disgusting that someone assaulting like that only gets 5 weeks. Finishing the write up with "I don't want any more lectures from rugby people on how their is the more disciplined game". In other words he was showing his arris to those saying rugby is more professional.

We had two players put away for not too dissimilar actions to what that was on Saturday.

If Ashton had landed a punch I would have loved to see your reaction

Good sport.

Reminded me of Barrie-Jon Mather (Chris Ashton) V Keith Senior (Manu Tuilagi) at Wheldon Road in '98 only it didn't take Senior three punches to sort it out.

If Ashton had even thrown a punch, then he would have been ready for what was coming, and then my view would be completely different.

As it happens, not only did he not land a punch, but not throw one. That is therefore assault from the other player.

Do you still think the officials deserve a long ban?

*chortle*

Can you still not read.

*chortle* *s* points and laughs.

Except Fielden was knocked spark out........Ashton took the punch!!!!