It was a natural reaction from the fans to say to Ben that we forgive him and we're happy that he's back. I thought it was quite emotional and I reckon it lifted Ben no end.

would you have preferred the fans to do nothing and let the Wire fans Boo's get to him instead.

I think we (the sport, supporters etc) learned a lot from the Terry Newton tragedy. You don't hang people out to dry for one mistake without any support or make sure they know they're wanted and appreciated when it's necessary. I was on my feet, not embarrassed at all, no way was it excessive.

Personally, I don't blame the club for taking the opp to tell the fans their side of the story. They got a lot of flak for not putting up enough of a fight to keep these players originally. I think it's fair enough that they celebrate the fact their tactic worked in the face of a big home crowd.

An absolute natural reaction imo. Great to see.

I thought he performed very well all things considered. Great to have him back.

Having Ben back will make a massive difference to the pack.

In fact I thought we only got on top of the Wire pack from the point at which he came on.



He's a very good prop and the club should secure his and the pack's future by giving him a new contract. I'd say 5 years but 4 years seem the fav time of the club so I'd go along with that.

To be honest Ben made no impact, to be specific he was poor. People got carried away with the hype and forgot he isn't really that good, out of our props he's the least talented and if he's with us next season I'd be shocked.

It was a nice return for him but that's it, people will start remembering he's crap

Let down by the club? Hung out to dry? Are you serious ?



HE let the club down! HE let the game down! You make out like he was wrongly accused of something. He practically asaulted a player on the pitch with a act that's never been seen on a pro rugby pitch EVER! You do that in the street and you go down.



Imo wigan backed him to the hilt. Lance Hohaia didn't make a big deal of it even tho it totally ruined his grand final. Saints offered him all the support in the world.



I think it was pretty embarrassing the standing ovation he got. He's back from a ban and not a injury.



I can get it, if you lot do it when Sam returns to the club but FFS Flower was back from a 6 month ban

Calm down a bit. By today's standards I agree the club backed him but he still had to do the sackcloth and ashes routine demanded by the outraged classes such as yourself.

By me? Really ?





Check my posts on the Flower incident. I said it was bad and the 6 month ban was far to long. Id have give him 6-8 games.

His stats were good and proved his impact was good.



He was consistently our best prop for the last two years and I'd guess he will be again.

You've just contradicted yourself haven't you? On the one hand you say he's not been hung out to dry and then you go on to say that his ban was far too long? Ben is hardly a well known thug on the pitch and had a very good disciplinary record before the incident. None of this seemed to be taken into accoun.



Some of the talk at the time of police involvement and anger management classes went too far imo. It was a witch hunt at one point and I think the club could have backed him a little louder.

To be fair I do remember your previous posts. I was just reacting to your last one with all of the exclamation marks. I shall therefore remove you from the aforementioned outraged classes.