John Asiata has had an exceptional season for Leigh Leopards captaining them to second-place in the table with memorable wins over Leeds Rhinos, Warrington Wolves and twice over St Helens including in the weekend’s Challenge Cup semi-final.
Asiata has been so impressive that it was previously reported by The Mole of Wide World of Sports that he is destined to return to the NRL, something that riled Leopards owner Derek Beaumont up the wrong way with Beaumont attempting to set up a £1 million bet after declaring the story as rubbish.
Nevertheless it’s clear that Asiata has been one of Super League’s best and he’s in with a real shout at the Man of Steel award, a ball-playing loose forward, the former Samoa and Tonga international is without doubt one of the sport’s best.
He showed that on Saturday when he stepped up to the big occasion and helped guide Leigh to a Wembley Challenge Cup final, the team aiming to lift that trophy for the first time since 1971.
Sadly though it hasn’t been the deserved plaudits for Leigh’s win, or for Asiata’s involvement in it, in fact it’s the opposite with the loose forward being outlined as the villain of the match.
That comes after revelations that Asiata was involved in four separate tackles that caused injuries to four St Helens players, with Saints’ boss Paul Wellens claiming in the post-game that Agnatius Paasi’s knee was “blown to smithereens”.
Since then scans have taken place confirming Paasi will miss nine months with an ACL, MCL and ankle ligament injuries whilst Alex Walmsley is out for three months with an MCL injury.
Fellow forwards Louis McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Morgan Knowles also picked up injuries courtesy of Asiata tackles with LMS set to miss two weeks and Knowles potentially missing Friday’s fixture.
An impassioned Paul Wellens has since called on the sport to take action over such tackle technique and potentially inadvertently started a pile on for Asiata, who has now been revealed to be suffering death threats.
Speaking on Sky Sports News’ Rugby League verdict Jon Wilkin, former Saints captain, spoke on the matter and supported Asiata.
“Yeah I mean look it’s part of the social discourse now isn’t it? My phone is here and I can see it pinging with me getting abusive messages from people. So look, if you’re in professional sport, you get abused.
“It’s not nice. It happens, unfortunately. Every player’s inbox has things in it that you wouldn’t really want to see. I think it’s desperately sad. I think we’re living in an era where everybody’s contactable. That’s our choice. We’re on social media but I don’t wish it upon anybody, certainly not John Asiata.
“He’s a good man, he’s a great rugby player. He’s got this wrong in my opinion, but he’s an outstanding rugby player and a good person and there’s no malicious intent in this, so people reaching out and being angry at him, I don’t think the anger should be directed towards him.”
He also echoed the thoughts of Paul Wellens in regards to player safety, but ultimately had a stronger message to those online trolls.
“We all want players to be safe, we all want young people who play the game to be safe and the pursuit of that should be of paramount importance for everybody, so people need to lay off him.
“Don’t message me saying I’m saying this stuff because I’m pro St Helens. Just get a life. Go out and do something interesting today other than messaging Super League players with your minor gripes. It’s nonsense!”
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