The vilification of Ben Thatcher is getting silly. Yes it was a nasty, reckless challenge but talk of police action and law suits and even terminating Thatcher's contract is madness.

The challenge was unnecessarily aggressive and mostly indefensible, but seems to me that Thatcher is being judged not by his actions but by the result of his actions. It's terrible (and a bit scary) that Mendes was out cold and needed hospital treatment but if Thatcher's wild elbow had connected an inch higher, lower, to the left or to the right, Mendes might have gotten straight back up.

The controversy surrounding Dermot Gallagher's decision to show Thatcher yellow instead of red (a decision for which Gallagher has been punished) is similarly outside of Thatcher's control. If Thatcher had been sent off, the whole thing might have gone away by now, and it's not the English/Welshman's fault that Gallagher was feeling impossibly liberal that day.