Snowy wrote:
Time to move on folks. Its done and the decision has been made.
It was a bad un, and as been mentioned, just as bad as Newton and Cassidys tackle. I think Cassidy stayed on the pitch too because everything happened so quickly. All 3 tackles were bad, and just as bad as Les Boyds famous tackle which saw him being banned for some time in the 80's.
The you tube clip was unfortunately the wrong angle. The damage was done by Mannings right elbow, not the left. Jumping up to connect shows the intent. He didn't miss !!
Now the sense of reality is that you have lost a good second rower for 10 weeks as a result of being plain stupid. Why he started the second brawl after that tackle God knows. He was on a mission thats for sure.
I am also aware that he has a really poor disciplinary record. That wont help neither !
I think it is a toss of a coin on whether HRLFC actually support him or not. Its going to be an interesting few days for the Halifax board. I hope they do, and give him the help and support required to channel his agression in the correct way.
Another possibility is as below.
Stature wise Barlow is much taller and much bigger, Manning went in to put a big it on at some pace and when Barlow offloaded the collision was unavoidable, a split second before impact he raised his arms and body together as other rugby players have done but not had the bad outcome, if he hadn't have done it would most likely have been his upper head and Sams lower face and jaw that would have collided and that could have been even worse.
I don't necessarily agree that Manning intentionally went to make contact with Barlows head with his elbow or showed intent as you stated, for the whole event from Barlow offloading to Manning moving in and the impact is a couple of seconds at the most.
The officials closest to the incident didn't even respond until it kicked off, it was sighted as a shoulder charge which it wasn't and who knows what they would have done if play had continued.
The fighting is different he had lost it completely and on 2 or 3 separate occasions got involved to the point of going looking for someone to have a punch up with.
If it's time to move on please try and avoid signing off with a wise after he event judgmental comment that implies he deliberately meant it by intent because we don't know that, only Manning does.
He will serve his ban for 10 games and I fully expect the club to stand by him.
