From personal experience the only person who can sort is himself.
He will need support but ultimately he needs self will to get himself through this.
If it is too much him he should retire. That sounds like an unemotional statement but in fact it is the complete opposite.
It sounds daft but what could help him is a bit of ruck to get it out of his system.
Whatever he decides I hope it is the best for him and his family. He is one of my favourite players and from what I have heard from people who have met him he is a very genuine and likeable guy.
To be fair to him his current form is understandable if not unexpected and he is a million miles away from Mossop, Crosby, Tomkins, Patrick and SOL who should be to put it bluntly pretty ashamed of what they have delivered this season. I exclude Tautai from the list because at least he will give it go and keep looking for work unlike the others.
I include SOL who is my favourite player because he is the leader on the pitch therefore, the responsibility of galvanising the team when things are going wrong rests with him.
I include Tomkins because he huffs and he puffs but he never puts anyone down. He does lots of talking but not once have I seen him put someone on their .

Obviously I haven't seen the Simms incident and so can't comment on it other than to say, if he's guilty of an offence I hope he gets what he deserves. But your comment about "synthetic outrage" in relation to the Flowers' incident, does you no credit. Your club and the player handled the fall out from that incident with some dignity. It was a stupid and shocking attack, especially the second punch on the ground and I doubt the outrage at the time was synthetic. That said, Flower has served his penalty and doesn't deserve to have the incident raked up every time a Wigan player is the recipient of alleged foul play. Move on.

Maybe it's not just Flower who is affected by the perception that if there is retaliation they will be hauled over the coals?

If the Wigan forwards are think they are under the spotlight (whether they are or not in reality) they aren't going to rush in and smack someone like Simms regardless of what he did.

Also if the club has banned retaliation as some form of PR exercise they have basically cut the balls off the forwards.

And before anyone says I am condoning violence when I mention retaliation I don't mean poleaxing players as a matter of course over nothing but what most fans would actually like to see happen if their team's halfback got punched on the ground.

Maybe I am clutching at straws and the lack of aggression isn't due to any club directive or fear of disciplinary retribution and they really have become a powder puff pack but I hope not.

You're right, and so all similar attacks must be judged in the same way from now on. I await Simms's punishment with interest.

I don't think we've thrown a punch all year from memory and that in itself is worrying. There's been push and shove, ball throwing and even weird eskimo style nose running between John Bateman and Terry Campese at their place but we look scared to death of stepping out of line.

It's not a case of being thuggish but Rugby league is the ultimate game of aggression and intimidation and you can't be seen to not stand your ground. I'm not saying we go out and belt people for no reason but taking that Sims incident from Thursday, he wouldn't have got away with that 12 months back!

A game sticks in my memory that highlights the difference in us this year compared to last and that's the Magic game at the Etihad against Leeds. We went in as underdogs with plenty of injuries but we gave it to them (legally) and they didn't like it. When they came at us we went back at them and nobody have an inch.

I'd be playing that in video sessions all week and use that as the standard.

Spot on DaveO

Surely if players know it's an automatic red card for any punch (and the NRL is the same), they won't do it? And this applies to all teams, so there's no reason it should be hobbling Wigan any more than any other side.

Whether we think the automatic red thing is a good idea or not is another matter, but it shouldn't restrict us anymore than anyone else.

As I said in my original post



My point was the outrage about the GF incident wasn't synthetic as you said it was. I can't comment on the incident with Simms, beyond what I've said because I didn't see it.

RL rarely makes national headlines. Frankly the dailies and national news bulletins couldn't care less about it. We barely exist to them. In which case, for them to give such coverage to a foul and speak about it in such disgusted terms was HIGHLY synthetic. But I'm not just talking about that, I'm drawing a comparison between that very fake reaction to the Flower incident and the near non-existent reaction to the Williams incident - I don't think Wiggie and Slaphead even mentioned it. But as you say, you didn't see that and so can't comment. In which case, best to leave it there, eh?

Ouch. Not so much dyslexic...... more hungover.











FYI [iAndy[/i Flower OBE was the England Cricket coach until Jan 2014.

Against Salford on easter Monday Bateman came off the bench, had a fight with Haruaki, got binned, came back on, had a fight with Haruaki, got sent off, tried to carry it on down the tunnel!

Sutton had a fight during the Huddersfield home game as well and got decked. Got sin binned then came back on to score the winning try

So we agree it's been a while then.

Both Clark and Sims charged, yet Wigan didn't even get a penalty, I wonder if that's what Wane was referring to about a strong referee. www.superleague.co.uk/article/32 ... rs-charged?

Both Clark and Sims charged, yet Wigan didn't even get a penalty, I wonder if that's what Wane was referring to about a strong referee. www.superleague.co.uk/article/32 ... rs-charged?

A Grade B 1-2 match ban for Simms with the option to use an EGP

I know who he was.

Stop drinking that devil hooch.

Never mind Sims cheeky little punches.

Part and parcel of the game.

Its Clarke's Crusher Tackle that needs to be looked at. The reason Williams was down had nothing to do with the jabs from Disco Thor. It was because of the sickening amount of pressure Clarke placed on the neck.

Westwood did one earlier on the game on Farrell that was not picked up either.

These Crusher tackles are far worse than any Chicken wing, Canon ball or Squirrel type move.

Its someone bloody spinal column that is being stretched. Needs to be stopped ASAP.

Quite happy for people to have a bit of punchy punchy though. Nothing wrong with a wee bit of man dancing.

trying to paralyse someone is a different thing altogether

Chuck a massive ban at Clarke and send the message out. If a Wigan player does it then throw the bl00dy book at him.

Accidental or not, publicly flog the player for being so malicious or reckless that they would do such a thing.

Spat mi coffee out at that Crusher, and i agree re Crusher "Tackle".....

Still, a prone player punched which should be punished, i was disgusted with Flowers punches, and i am with these.. Stood up handbags, fair enough, 10 mins in bin to cool off.

For somebody thats supposed to be a "hardman",sims doesnt impress me very much,anyone who picks on a 19 year old kid in the manner he did is just a ehouse of the highest order and as for westwood squaring up to sarginson the last time he did that he was knocked out by one punch by cas centre Gray Viane

To be honest I'd have my money on Sarg - he was laughing at the Neandethal and looked well up for it. As we all know, Westwood will only punch players who are pinned down an can't fight back.

Of course. I was at both games but they'd slipped my mind. As pointed out though it's been a while and incidents have certainly been few and far between. I suppose that's the same across the whole league though to a point due to bans being dished out.

We do need to get more physical though and if bans come then so be it. We're being bullied at the moment which is surely the ultimate embarrassment for a coach like Wane. Weirdly though he doesn't seem to mention it.

I have no real problem with what Sims did as long as it's punished either by a penalty or, more importantly, a square up from one of our forwards. Half backs old and young have been targeted by big forwards for years. It's part and parcel of the game and it comes with the territory. Williams will be fully aware of that.

I'd back Westwood against sarg though.

I disagree Sarge at times has the ability to bounce off players when they attack him.

At times i think Sarge in the new Neo.

Seen it on the Super League show. You are comparing that to the Flower incident? Seriously? It was unnecessary and did Simms no credit, firstly because it was 2 on 1 and secondly because it looked like handbags. He will probably cop a deserved short ban and a b0110king from the PFU, I wasn't even sure they were punches until I saw the reverse angle slow motion. I agree with the poster who said the crunch was of more concern, that certainly seemed to be what Williams reacted to.

Sims of Wire 1 Match ban, Hardaker of Leeds 1 match ban.

No mention of Clark of Wire.

Edit, Clark no ban after submitting an early guilty plea.

It's not in that league but in fairness to Flower at least Hohiha had a chance to strike back (had he not been knocked out) and wasn't being held down with his arms clamped. There was also no obvious provocation in this case.

The punches were nothing punches and that's the difference but it was a real cowardly act from Sims.