He has apologised:

[urlhttp://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=rleague/11/08/29/RUGBYL_Wigan.html&BID=480[/url

Fair enough. Raises one question though - when he said 'he said he didn't know anything about it' when asked about it on Saturday what did he mean?

There are a lot of people who don't like Sam, there are many reasons why but it all results in people disliking him.

What he did was wrong, he stuck the Vs up toward the Leeds fans right infront of a camera. Live on BBC One, to a lot of people. Some people will be deeply offended by that. The majority of us on here enjoy a good beer and nothing more than the occasional abusive chant from the stands, but there are many people out there, watching our game at the highest level on a national channel, that don't and could have been offended by that.

People keep bringing up past moments, the most common one being the Lee Briers v Leeds in 2006. But, the RFL shouldn't even consider that. They should take every case as something brand new. Forget about who the player is, what team they play for, just look at their previous history with the Commitee and the offense they are currently there for and punish according to the rules and guidelines.

As a Warrington fan, I'm in two minds about him being banned. I'd love him to play, but would also love a go at the Wigan team without their "goldenboy".

He appologised, that's fair enough. But that was forced by Wigan. That's obvious with the fact that he was fined and punished by his own club before publicly appologising.

The RFL will probably get a fair amount of complaints from RL fans and the BBC, and they need to show they have a backbone.

They should bring him infront of the committee, and ban him. Show to the Rugby League world that the RFL DO have a backbone. Players have to follow THEIR rules and not think they are above the law.

They should tell him they don't care if next week is potentially the league leaders decider, the biggest game in SL the season, or the fact that he is one of Wigans (And dare i say it, one of the sports best players) and hit him with a ban and a fine. Especially because he DENIED doing it. He embarrassed the RFL by doing what he did and he should be FAIRLY punished for it, under the rules set by the RFL. Not just get a slap on the wrists and told not to do it again.

Maybe they tried this...

[urlhttp://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20590-rat-memory-restored-by-installing-replay-electronics.html[/url

It means that he was put on the spot and panic set in, that's all. Well done to Wigan for defusing a situation that was in danger of getting out of hand.

Exactly. He probably just didn't realise how obvious it was when he first denied his quote lol.

incident happened in Minute 8. Interview was post match... there's alot goes through a players head in excess of 72 minutes, rather than commenting on it on TV, better to wait to discuss with club management!

Remember, the Wigan Club is very much "No Comment" on press questions.

That's a very charitable way of describing it. Reality is more like:-

- Wigan scored
- He wanted to rub Leeds' fans noses in the Ben Cross (which I don't blame him for)
- He gave them the V, thinking that in the game with the largest TV audience of the season, he wouldn't get caught (which was stupid)
- He did get caught (which was obvious)
- He lied

He may well have panicked but he still lied. The fact that it was after the match is irrelevant. I would have given him a pass if he had come out himself and admitted it later but he didn't.

I don't think we should be banning players for this, either for the gesture or the lie that followed it. However, even the most myopic Wigan fan must now understand why such a talented player is so universally hated.

Still jealousey apparently

Wigan have come out of this very poorly, indeed.

The world and his dog started jumping all over this issue from the moment it happened.
It's been "hyped-up" out of all proportions ever since.
It's been mentioned on national sports reports, and covered in the printed media.
All this could have been nipped in the bud, a couple of hours after the game, or first thing Sunday morning, when Wigan finished celebrating.

We all know Tomkins was (morally) in the wrong (as I said previously, he's a RL player, not exactly known for his brain). Wigan should have said to him "listen sunshine, you've made a bit of a pratt of yourself, go and apologise, and everyone will quickly forget about it". Instead, they let it fester for 48 hours, which has cooked up more paranoia throughout the game.
No need for Wigan to go inside their "shell", and have a debate about it, with a "shall we, shall we not" attitude, with regards a statement. We all know what happened.

Poor effort all round.

This should have been dealt with a lot sooner.

All this has done has probably speeded up his exit to union by 12 months.

I agree with all you have written,i think if it hadn't blown so much out of proportion Wigan may well of just had a quiet word but their hand was forced on this one personally a ban would be a bit ott

To me, Wigan are merely trying to head the RFL off at the pass so to speak.

Do we think that the Tomkins brothers are now officially the "thicky twins".
We know most footballers have brains in their feet and trouser area, and that RL players aren't exactly renowned for their intelligence, but it is about time that the RL and referees clamped down on speaking to refs and touch judges. Otherwise we will end up like football with Wigan, the Man U of the RL, abusing officials about every decision that goes against them. And Sam's "apology" is a typical Man U ploy to draw the fire of the RL away from ratboy.
Let's give him stick on Sunday.

Which will probably be abuse, one and two fingured salutes, and that sign which indicates he indulges in the pleasures of the palm.....in which case, we'll be no better than he is.

Yes, OK, let's give him stick, but we shouldn't be taking the moral highground, because we'll be doing the same as what he's done. Double standards, methinks.

A fine from Wigan is enough(probably £50). We probably wouldn't be that outraged if it was a different player.

There may be a slight difference in the two. One could argue that the pro sportsman occupation comes with the addition of stick from the opposition once a week. They get paid a more than complimentary wage and don't have to do as much as say a soldier or a doctor. Their are players who are part-timers who put in as muc, if not more, effort as sam and we must remember his occupation is purely in the field of recreation. Additionally, a supporter pays sam's wages and there is a slight expectation that supporters are there to get on players' backs.

However with ratboy and his slippery stupidity, I don't even care. Give him as much stick as poss!

Leave Vomkins alone we don't need to give him stick to fire up his game, we could just jeer and whistle every time Wigan have the ball and turn the HJ in to the zoo

Whilst i agree with the fact that it was wrong, I do not agree with this part. One of the most common complaints about the RFL is that they are not consistent enough.

And i don't like having to bring up incidents like the briers/lee smith one... but like i said in my earlier post, if they ban sam because there was a few more people than usual watching on the bbc then they are as good as saying that you can do it in superleague, we'll just give you a slap on the wrist...but do it on the bbc and your in trouble. Hardly fair is it? A dangerous tackle wouldn't be punished any more severly because it's on the bbc so why should this incident? The most important thing is treating cases consistently...

Good point from Keith Senior on twitter along the lines.....

"It takes a man to apologise for his actions, however to be ordered to read a statement prepared by somebody else in a feeble attempt to apologise..........takes THE MAN out of that!!"

Seeing his initial response when questioned about it was along the lines of 'I don't know what you're talking about' proves that the 'apology' has little meaning. Personally I hope he isn't banned and we have the opportunity to crunch the the little wazzock on Sunday.

No bans for any Wigan players this week.

Doubt over Josh Charnley and Lee Mossop.

No excuses

Come on Wire

Spot on!

Anyway, it's all over now. Let's call it a day and move on to the next argument.

Yes i agree