and the difference is that McManus had some editorial control of what would get published in a programme, especially as it reflects the entire club - whereas with a newspaper interview editorial control lies elsewhere and it's only Gausch's viewpoint.

Of course it did, but it wasn’t McManus that did that, it was the other journos chasing controversy. McManus was just whinging in his own program to a bunch of people that already agreed with him.

I’m not defending McManus either, as much as I felt aggrieved by Hicks in that game, the chairman coming out and doing that was embarrassing and he was rightly punished.

The point here is that Gausch hasn’t had anywhere near the same reaction, despite the fact he’s gone out of house and said all this in a newspaper, in a country in which we are currently trying to make great strides in expanding into. The precedent has been set and Gausch is due a more severe punishment than was handed to McManus, because his transgression was worse and not only that, he rounded it off with a threat that threatens the integrity of the entire super league.

The fact that loads of fans are backing Gausch’s comments are hilarious, but not surprising considering the small mindedness of RL fans in general. Saints are successful therefore they are bad and everything they do is bad! They only win because the refs! Poor catalan/castleford/Salford delete as appropriate

I thought the game was very good and the ref was no worse or better then any other ref maybe we should try like they are in football and have all women in charge ie ref lins women and video refs

Fair points, just to endorse that the McManus spat was really an internal affair (match program) that eventually transgressed into breaking the operational rules and a £3000 fine.

Gausch was very much a spat externally sent across a social media platform(s) with a conditional demand for any future participitation. I'm pretty sure this also breaks operational rules, will the RFL subject a similar £3000 fine or will the RFL back off and just give him a slapped wrist.

Amazing that some people can twist themselves into believing that McManus actually sitting down and writing something for public consumption, presumably several days after the event, is considered less bad than Gausch saying a few heated things directly after the event.

It also needs remembering that McManus followed up his programme notes with a press release so it's by no case an internal thing that he couldn't imagine would be picked up on outside St Helens.

Thats incorrect, as The Reaper had just explained the Journo's got it spinned out to get more mileage of controversy. McManus followed up with a press release to counter the journo's spin, the press release was approved by the RFL Compliance Team and also contained an ending apology to the RFL, I,m not sure if he apologised to Hicks himself.

If I can get the RFL approved club statement I will post it up.