A couple of seasons ago i really rated Farrell, he looked to be one of the best up and coming forwards in Rugby League, but over recent times his game and style of play looks to have changed considerably. He seems to be all about spoiling tactics, constantly lying on, hands in the play the ball, niggling opponents trying to put them off their game and every now and again an embarrassing cheap shot on opposing players, (he does seem to be a bit of a penalty machine at the moment). But he really could still be one of the best in the world if he concentrated on his game and got back to simply playing Rugby League. I know a majority of Wigan fans will be spitting fire at this, but Chris Hill is a prime example of a forward who simply concentrates on His Rugby and gets on with it, (much like Jamie Peacock did at Leeds) and because of this he has become the player he is today, probably the best prop in British rugby and up there with the worlds best, Farrell still shows glimpses of what he is capable of, but he and indeed Shaun Wayne really could learn a lot by looking at the examples set by chris hill and Jamie Peacock before him, not just for Wigans benefit, but for Englands and possibly Great Britains in the future.

I cant believe people are trying to defend Farrell. It was as deliberate as they come and in my opinion should have been sin binned again. His actions were a disgrace last night.

I bet he was ing brilliant at pile-on at school!

There are plenty of players who have been given the 'penalty machine' tag over the years because they give away a lot of penalties for interference. Over the years it's been O'Loughlin, Joel Tomkins, Hoffman, before that Bailey, now Farrell. Basically, some very good and very experienced players give away penalties like that because they are expected to slow the game down. All teams try to do it. The hard working back row forwards who make plenty of tackles generally do it the most and sometimes they push it too far.



I don't quite get the criticism of Farrell. He's a better player now than ever before. He makes a huge number of metres, a huge number of tackles, is consistent, gets stuck in when things are going tough, has improved his skills so that this season he's created tries and breaks with smart passes and also put in some good kicks.



Occasionally he'll lose his cool and do something petulant out of frustration when things aren't going right. It's not something that happens that regularly and he's hardly in a minority of players who that applies to.

Strange all this thug business, I remember watching a game not so long ago between Wigan and Wire and commenting to a mate of mine to, “mark my words, if all this thuggish behaviour continues in our game, someone will have someone's eye out”....... and then forget they'd done it!

And this is where your argument falls down, as the great JP was guilty of a much worse 'knees-first' challenge last year: I forget who against, but he deliberately put his knees into the body of a player in the act of touching down, whilst clearly making no effort of a proper tackle.

The worst incident I've seen was Chev Walkers blatant punch on Sam Tomkins whilst in the act of scoring a try at Odsal a few years back, he was knocked unconscious but I don't recall an 8pt try being given that day.

Quote hatty="hatty"The worst incident I've seen was Chev Walkers blatant punch on Sam Tomkins whilst in the act of scoring a try at Odsal a few years back, he was knocked unconscious but I don't recall an 8pt try being given that day.'" Was it not Gareth Raynor? www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/13509140

Quote hatty="hatty"The worst incident I've seen was Chev Walkers blatant punch on Sam Tomkins whilst in the act of scoring a try at Odsal a few years back, he was knocked unconscious but I don't recall an 8pt try being given that day.'" Was it not Gareth Raynor? www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/13509140

I agree. He made some poor decisions in the Wire game but generally is one of our best and most reliable players. Others make mistakes week in and week out and get let off with comments about mistakes being forgiven because they are flavour of the month at the moment.

Charged, grade B, 1-2 matches.



Hopefully he'll learn his lesson, you can't defend what he did.

Deserves a suspension.

He'll probably submit an egp and take the one match ban.

Teams are guaranteed 2-3 penalties a game from him, when things go against him he throws his toys out of the pram and becomes petulant.



As a player he's going backwards.