Have to agree with the general sentiment. When I saw it, it was clear the player had pulled up, and to jump on him like that looked a cheap shot. Had it not been the night it was, it is the sort of thing that leads to a bit of biff (not normally complaining about that!), but I would have rather seen Atkins put a big shot on someone running at him rather than an injured man lying on the floor in pain.

I brought Bailey into it to illustrate the inconsistency between the refs, if it was a penalty when Bailey did it Graham it should have been when Atkins did it on Wheeler.

Wheeler was quite clearly injured and what Atkins did was unncessary. As I have pointed out earlier I would be critical if a Saints player did it.

He will be fine at Wakey thanks!

Hopefuly he will have a big year this and start to show he is good enough for England. He has certianly started well this season and hopefuly he can be more consistent this season.

He is doing well at Wakey I am sure he will stay there.

The tackle was not required really. I have seen worse (Adrian Shelford anyone!!). It should really be illegal to do that but as it is not there is not much more to say about it.

The ref was clearly wrong in the Bailey case and would also have been wrong in the Atkins/Wheeler case.

Both players were in possession of the ball and not tackled at the time.

The defender has a duty to prevent the ball carrier off loading the ball.

But as the player was injured, Atkins had to do nothing more than put his hands on him and make a token tackle.

Atkins isn't a dirty player though, and is looking more like the Atkins we expect this year than the shadow we got last year.

So if Atkins hadn't off dropped on Wheeler would he have penalised him for a voluntary tackle, as it was plain for everyone to see he wasn't going to get up again, or stopped the play because of an injury?

Clearly Atkins didn't heed the new directive from the previous Friday where you're not allowed to tackle un-tackled Saints players with too much force.

... I think you may mean "unnecessary" force

I wonder why this thread has upset more Leeds fans than it has Wakey?

I think this was Chanelle's assessment as well.

Even if he didn't know the lad was injured it was one of those cheap and cynical aggressive flops that should be outlawed.

You can't out law it, because it wasn't technically wrong. You can't create a rule that says "don't tackle people when they're injured".

Atkins should've just known better although we'll never know if he genuinely didn't realise. Let's not get hung up on it, though.