Speak to many rugby league fans and they will argue one of the sport's great strengths is that it is hard but fair. What Ben Flower did in Saturday's Grand Final, the showpiece occasion of the season, was clearly hard but utterly, disgracefully unfair.
Supporters will sometimes accept punches being traded if they feel it is an even contest. So, to the bemusement of many, will certain officials.
Thumping someone does not bring the automatic expulsion that it really should. Yet referee Phil Bentham’s decision to dismiss Flower ought to only prove the start of the Wigan prop’s problems, and not just because he cost his side the chance of being champions.
His assault on St Helens’ Lance Hohaia was vicious and brutal. Some, wrongly, have tried to excuse Flower’s first punch. The former Wigan winger Martin Offiah claimed provocation, in the form of a late tackle, justified it. “If I had done what Lance did, I’d expect a slap,” he said. “Lance Hohaia will never attack Ben Flower again.”
Maybe not, but that was partly because he was unconscious on the ground before a second, shocking punch. This was not rugby, but thugby. The Welshman should count himself fortunate he did not wake up in a jail cell yesterday.
Rugby league, a closed shop of a sport that often protects its own, has a tendency to brush certain misdemeanours under the carpet. This cannot be another if the sport wants to retain any credibility. Talk of an eight-game suspension is unsatisfactory. Flower should not be permitted to play in 2015.
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