When it comes to biting allegations in Rugby League, I actually give the benefit of the doubt to a player who is accused of biting!
Why?
Get someone to take their forearm and shove it against your mouth. Then get them to keep pushing until it forces your mouth to open and your teeth to scrape against their skin. You might not be trying to actively bite them, but it will look like a bite, and it will feel like a bite, and it will even leave marks like a bite.
Sometimes these incidents happen. Its just unlucky for everyone involved.
Then we get instances where players actually go out of their way to bite an opposition player. These instances are shocking and weird!
Remember the 2012 NRL Grand Final when James Graham sought out and make a real effort to bite Billy Slater as players were all pushing and shoving one another?
Like I said….shocking and weird!
So when I heard about the biting allegation against Kyle Flanagan on Stephen Crichton, I held back any judgement until I really saw what happened myself.
Now, to be fair, Crichtons head was right there in Flanagans face. His nose pushed into Flanagans mouth. Then, Flanagan seems to chomp down, and Crichton has to yank his nose from Flanagans teeth. It looks bad! It looks worse when you see the aftermath, pretty clear bite marks on Crichtons nose taken after the match!
Now, I can’t speak of Kyle Flanagan’s motivations, I supposed thats for him to do when he fronts the judiciary, but I know for damn sure that Stephen Crichton wasn’t looking to get his nose bitten like that during a Rugby League match!
The reaction to this incident has been pretty insane. People blaming Crichton for getting his nose bitten. Using terms like “He was the aggressor” and even suggesting that his decision not to turn up at the judiciary hearing is something evidence that, not only did he not get bitten on the nose, but it might have been his fault all along.
What the fuck is wrong with people!
Look at the image above. Do you think Stephen Crichton needs to provide any more proof that he had his nose bitten?
Do you think he has an obligation to serve as a witness on behalf of Kyle Flanagan?
What do you want him to say? “Well, I know my nose ended up in his mouth, and it looks like he did bite down on it, and it seems I had to tear my nose out of his teeth, and it looks like I have teeth marks all over my nose, but its all an optical illusion and none of that actually happened!”.
Do you honestly think Crichton needs to spend one extra minute of his life on this bullshit? He isn’t in trouble for this, Kyle Flanagan is! It’s his problem now!
So, if you’re one of these people that has decided to go after Stephen Crichton because someone took a bite of him during a football match, do the rest of us a favour…….just shut the fuck up!
