Should have been a penalty.cpwigan posted:
Rob, KC knew exactly what he was doing. I hate 3rd men coming in when a player is tackled. Experienced players know a player held is unable to relax their head and thus vulnerable. He simply went looking to make contact with Pats head with whatever he could. The part of his body was almost irrelevant.
Some players particularly those with past players in their families are knowledgable in the dark arts of yesteryear rugby.
Doesn't require any further action.
Watching a slow motion replay often looks bad. No-one complained until it came up on the screen. People around me were debating whether whether it was a Wigan player on the floor or a Saints player, so clearly it wasn't obvious.
Pat Richards drove the ball in... as Cunningham joined the tackle Richards started to fall. Had Cunningham entered the tackle a fraction of a second earlier he'd have contacted the chest and no-one would have said a thing.
You have to remember the speed at which things happen is much, much slower in a slow motion replay. As a human he doesn't have the reactions to pull out of the tackle at such short notice. In real time it appears as an innocuous challenge and sometimes get missed by the officials.