Ben Flower made a horrible mistake. One that will haunt him for the rest of his life. He cost his team dearly on the night and has been rightly criticised and pilloried from all quarters! His punishment is just and warranted! He must serve his sentence.
Ben Flower is also an exceptional prop forward and by all accounts a decent and genuine guy.
I look forward to seeing him back on the pitch next April having served his sentence and hopefully a better man for it
Judges jury's and executioners now need to stand down and leave the lad alone

Saints said all along it was a matter for the R.L and made it clear they had no wish for the police to be involved . The sentence is about right and its time to move on , but those refering to L.H offence and his one match after e.g.p have a word with yourselves it was nothing more than a push with the elbow and not a malicious attack . One other thing its time your coach started behaving in an appropriate manner and not acting like a big kid , it never hurts to sometimes give a bit of praise to opposition teams (and i don't mean thinly veiled or sarcastic praise) . Also if he is going to let cameras in to the dressing room , maybe a more professional and measured team talk would be better than the Sunday amateur one he came up with .

I really think you need to go and take another look, without your tinted specs on my friend.... It's not on the scale of Mr Flowers actions, but it's not nice, and a little more than a "Push with the elbow".....

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It was only Tuesday for heaven sake when Saints issued the statement you are referring to. There are a lot of things to consider and we've seen some reactions from people who spoke in the heat of the moment (jail term, life ban etc). McManus had already spoken about the incident (and done so with utmost professionalism) even before his Tuesday statement.

In my opinion he didn't wait long at all. Think you might be being a tad unreasonable.

Just reported on SKY sports news that Flower has received death threats!!!

He has already received his punishment, and has to live with what he as caused. The guy made a huge mistake and is remorseful.

Whoever sent these threats are the real scum and I hope the Police take the correct actions against them!

Agree Ranger. Like the people who issue threats to the McCann family. There are some weird folk around.

Eamonn McManus has behaved with a lot more dignity and understanding of Rugby League than all the press and news media put together. Thank heavens for that.

Of course it won't be enough for the hang and flog em brigade, many of whom have treated us to new depths of asininity on here.

I'm only glad that he didn't injure Hohai. I mean a life ban for that? Where on earth do you go if he'd say, broken an eye socket?

That is disgusting. Hopefully whoever did that will be found and dealt with.

Or alternatively...you could just ignore them?

And that would be in Flowers best interest?

Yes. Switch Twitter account off for a few weeks. Ergo...it never happened. I mean these cranks crave people taking them seriously. They always turn out to be desperately sad little boys. Just ignore them.

Yes tbh.

People who make threats on a keyboard are bunch of wimps. Can you imagine i am going to have him i am going to do him in. People who tend to do things never give warnings.



FFS did you see the first punch that is about the best punch i have ever seen. And he has the animal instincts to do the 2nd punch. So if they did go after him and not take him out then that prson is getting fed through a tube for the rest of their lives.

It's ironic that your avatar is John Lennon when you say don't worry about it and ignore the threat.
Most people who post death threats on Twitter are indeed idiots just thinking they can wind someone up while remaining anonymous. BUT as John lennon proved, some are cranks that follow through.
They need to be found and dealt with.

Yes of course, John Lennon was one of the most famous and recognisable men in the world. I think Ben is safe, don't you?

He's known well enough by the people who care about this subject.

Kieron Cunningham received no ban whatsoever when he forearmed a player in the face whilst on the floor, and fractured said player's eye-socket (Stosic of Wakefield). No ban, no threat of police, for what was a far worse incident. It is just a shame that Flower didn't keep his composure, because he's NOT a dirty player, far from it; but had he done so it should have been St Helens down to 12 men for the match, and I suspect they would have lost by more than 40 points.

YOU LOST FLOWER WAS A DISGRACE GET OVER IT

Do you mean like you clearly have?

I'm making this 'Post of the week' - congratulations!

I'm not a fan of this from McManus:

"Whilst serving his ban it is critical that Ben is now provided all due personal and professional support. His rehabilitation is now paramount. During the period of his ban he will be no more than a 25-year-old boy who will be extremely vulnerable emotionally."

I don't see that there's any rehabilitation to be made, if anything there's the same burden on Saints to work with LH for his forarm. Nor is he a boy and while there will be some emotion I see that the main problems here are the result of the overblown way in which this has been treated.

In another game, I don't know, lets say GB v's Aus nothing would be said, it's not like Morley was lambasted this much for his high tackle and first tackle sending off.

This nearly cheered me up as much as the guy clapping his own post a few days back.

I'm liking this post of the week idea - we should continue with it throughout the close-season.

However, I'm outraged at the fact you're using fireworks already and it's still three weeks to bonfire night.

So, if I add punctuation to your "remark", you DON'T think that Flower should have been sent off ???

Interesting view.

Not one shared in too many quarters.

Making death threats to a person who knocked another person out with a one punch and a rugby person to boot, got to love the keyboard warriors, all those caught should have the book thrown at them.

How? Take their keyboards off them and no more CeeBeebies for a fortnight? The Internet age has inflated the number but has inherently rendered almost all threats meaningless. Just a few keyboard warriors indulging their fantasies. If you want to talk about ironic, how ironic is it that the people who have lost most, I.e. Wigan fans, almost certainly aren't issuing death threats? The fans of other clubs now throwing their weight about should be thanking Flower, not castigating him. He singlehandedly (word?) gave Saints the GF trophy!