course it can be defended. You push someone hard enough and they will retaliate. Lets face it, Sam's had a bulls eye painted on his head all through this season, for players and fans a-like. His only saving grace is that he knows we love him. Even then, there's some in our own ranks who dislike him and think he's "not good enough to play for Wigan".

Would anyone have said anything if it wasn't caught on TV? Nope.

He's heading for a ban if the RFL diciplinary are consistent. This is what they said at a previous hearing : ' Whilst the panel can understand how the provocation implied may lead a person to react in the way in which you did what you must understand is that you are a high profile player in a high profile match and you are a role model to hundreds of youngsters in the game. This was an ugly incident . We therefore cannot overlook this incident.'

At least our players dont do it to their own fans



King and Eastmond proved that Saints and Wire have sh*t fans.

www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/au ... -cup-final

www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/au ... -cup-final

This bit should end all the hysteria:

the article is very good,
and brings out an important point about respect,
he needs more respect, as much as the wigan fans hated longy, whenever he played for england we all got behind the team,
sam seems to get abuse when on international dutry, discusting,
all the players deserve more resepct, and sam more than any,
this whole thing, and with the crap media, and dissapointing bias on the tv, leaves a massive sour taste about the final,

Sam was telling the Leeds fans Jeff Lima would score two tries!

Didn't Richie Myler gesture to us Wigan fans at the HJ last season?

Quote ="pondmonster"Didn't Richie Myler gesture to us Wigan fans at the HJ last season?'" /viewtopic.php?f=28&t=445789 Makes for interesting reading.

Quote ="pondmonster"Didn't Richie Myler gesture to us Wigan fans at the HJ last season?'" /viewtopic.php?f=28&t=445789 Makes for interesting reading.

If Sam was to be punished would it not be for bringing the game into disrepute?

Shouldn't the BBC be punished for replaying it in slow motion during the after-match summary?

Young Sam is a silly BOY

Grow up son

and leave that sort of silliness to Rooney and the rest of the nancyball boys

it should have no place in a MANS GAME.

Interesting. Not too much of a shock that supporters of certain clubs conviniently forget that their own players have done the same and got a way with it.

When will the RFL make a decision on any disciplinaries given that it is Bank Holiday?

Lee Briers gives his verdict on how many games Sam should get.



Well done MattyB for finding this BTW.

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 695413.stm

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 695413.stm

Review panel meets Tuesday, anyone called up goes to Red Hall on Weds.

It does and what seems to be missing generally is any idea that Leeds as a club need to get a bit of grip on the section of their fans that abuse players to this degree.

People may remember the abuse hurled at our U21 side at Castleford a few seasons ago following the salary cap issue. That was orchestrated by the announcer! Now I am not saying Leeds as a club have egged their fans on to make this the issue it is but not stamping down such abuse in what is supposed to be a family game reflects just as badly on them as that incident did at Castleford.

Sam dosent need to get involved in things like this and the showboating he did when scoring one of his tries against Bradford. He is so much better than that as a rugby player and if you listen to people like Rouges as a person. Let the people who throw abuse at him carry on and Sam can inflict pain on them where it hurts most UNDER THE STICKS .

I had one of the earpieces so you could hear the ref. When ST did his ridiculous run in the in goal area, afterwards you could here him taunting the leeds players about never winning the Challenge Cup through the refs mic. This man has no class and seriously needs to grow up, otherwise he will become a hate figure rather than a legend.

Because that never goes on in a game of rugby! Seriously, if you think that comments like that are anything out of the ordinary then you're seriously mistaken. When it comes to sledging and winding up the opposition, that's pretty much the least of what gets said between players.

What? Have you ever played the game? If you get targeted by the opposition yet come out victorious are you just going to leave it at that? Sledging goes on all the time and if the Leeds players want to to dish it out to Sam - and they do, they deserve to have their nosed rubbed in it when it doesn't come off.

Form [url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/14695883.stmhere[/url

But Joel was convinced that his Sam, who is alleged to have overdone the celebrations following Wigan's first try, was targeted by Leeds.

"It's disgraceful when you've got people like Ryan Bailey flying in," said the eldest of Wigan's three Tomkins brothers. "He's not doing it to anybody else. He's doing it to our smallest bloke on the field."

Bailey has no class and if Sam taunted him at the end, well he deserved it and more to the point [uit has nothing to do with his reaction to the crowds behaviour toward him.[/u

What did Bailey actually do wrong on Saturday?

If anything Joel Tompkins should be hauled-up in front of the RFL. You can't go about making statements like this about fellow professionals in the press.

Good one. Lets haul Joel Tomkins on a disrepute charge for that.

So now telling the truth is a banning offence for the Tomkins brothers.

Everyone in the competition knows that 'fellow professional' (

) Ryan Bailey is a flat-track bully, and stop trying to pretend otherwise.