Bal, are you saying that 1) you can contract out of the criminal law and 2) ANYTHING that happens during a game falls outside the courts' jurisdiction?

If you are can you direct me to the relevant authorities as I am genuinely interested

Lol.



I agree.



Regards,

Tony Martin, now out of prison.

1) No 2) No



By playing Rugby League, especially contracted professional sport you are however entering into an expectation of physical and occasionally aggressive contact sport. You are not saying that foul play or aggression is necessarily acceptable, but that the officials of the game, be it the pitch official or the disciplinary panel, which again operate within the guidelines of English tenant law including sentences, which include match suspensions and fines are an appropriate body to deal with such incidents rather than the police. Simple enough. There are many sports that take that even further, for example boxing. If the world of sport and law took such a literal conversation of law on the street to law in the game, virtually all contact sport would become sanitised.



I clearly gave two scenarios, out of many on point 2) in my last post to demonstrate my belief that not everything falls into this category.



As it goes, according to the BBC, the police have indeed decided to look at the matter and so I guess we will have to wait to see the outcome of that. I still think they will say that the RFL dealing with the matter is appropriate, especially as there doesn't seem to have been a criminal complaint, either from the victim or the public.

If you punched somebody that was unconscious on the ground, and the police saw it, provoked or not, your getting arrested and charged.



The law defines it as excessive force.

The target was already neutralized. You never do a man on the deck. He'd have been charged on the street and rightly so.

In the space of about 2 seconds he threw 2 punches. It's not as if he threw the first, admired his handiwork and then followed up with another. He punched once, immediately dived on his attacker and punched again.

I was pretty horrified by it but I think the fact that it was on national telly at a showpiece event causing way more controversy than would be usual is the saddest thing about it. I say this with the knowledge that the 'victim' has tried to brush it off and has forgiven it. Lance elbowed him in the mush and the first 'standing' punch is almost universally accepted as legit by people in RL. I have some sympathy with Barnacle Bill's point about the speed at which it happened - a massive rush of blood, against the rules, stupid etc but punishment should stay within the sport in my opinion.

Anything outside what one could reasonably expect as a part of RL could not have been consented to as part of the rules of the sport. Things that happen on the field arent outside the law, simply affected by it.



This has been considered by GMP. I have no doubt that a very strong argument could be made for prosecuting Flower on the point of law. I have no doubt that if Hohaia had said he wanted it moving forward it would have done.



I question right now the point of doing so and with no one wanting to, i cant see that it will.

Are those calling for some sort of criminal action, doing so on the basis that he has committed an offence which is outside of the guidelines of the sport?.... If so, it sets a dangerous precedent for ALL sports, not just RL.



Take boxing, a sport which, arguably, is based on controlled violence.... Any breach of that 'control', a punch below the belt, a punch after the bell, leading with the head, etc, could easily be construed as an assault similar to Flower's on Saturday night.



Flower's was a moment of madness, but it was a moment that happens occasionally in sport.... Personally, I wouldn't like any sportsman to be put in any court and judged by anybody, with no experience of what its like to have the adrenaline flowing in a high pressure sporting situation and that's what we risk exposing Flower to.

Anyone condoning this needs to have a think if this was your son playing and this happened to him what course of action would you take?.....would you be saying its a rugby incident.



I for one think it should be a season ban.



yes plenty of punches are thrown on game day but that was a blatant punch on someone not attempting to defend himself. These are trained athletes who should be able to control there aggression.

"Anyone condoning this"



It's like people manage to browse this forum with their eyes shut.

Prosecuting a player through the legal system isn't unheard of in RL. Ellery Hanley once took action against Andy Dannett after having his jaw broken by a punch in a Hull v Leeds fixture.



I'd have been very confident that Hohai too would have gone down the same route if he'd received any injuries which required an operation and lengthy recovery time.