When the reaction of so many people within rugby league – a sport which never fails to divide opinion – to an incident is almost unanimous, you know you have a talking point on your hands. The Rugby Football League has made it its intention to crack down on late tackles this season more than ever before, underlined by the spate of yellow cards and suspensions we have seen handed out in the first month of the new Super League season.
Here, that issue was shone under the spotlight once again. There is nothing concrete to suggest Castleford would have avoided a fifth defeat in six games, their worst start to a season in a decade, had Mahe Fonua not become the latest victim of laws many feel are overzealous and simply too harsh on the players. But the facts are that Fonua’s yellow card led to a ten-minute period when Wigan had a man advantage, and they certainly exploited it.
