THE Paul Newlove sending off created most of the contentious debate in the aftermath of Friday's game.

Should he have been sent off or should it have been a sin-binning, or no punishment at all?

And, would Warrington have won if the Great Britain centre had stayed on the pitch?

All hypothetical now but the two camps' opinions were similar in some areas and contrasting in others.

Both seemed to agree that a sending off probably was not required but the views were slightly different when it came to discussing which team would have won if Newy had not walked.

One thing that pervaded from the Warrington camp was a certain degree of justice - as Toa Kohe-Love, the player who was high tackled by Newlove, was red-carded for an almost identical tackle against Wigan on the opening game of the season.

Darryl Van de Velde said: "I'm sure there was some reflex in his tackle but I thought we were going well enough at that stage to win the game anyway."

Saints coach Ian Millward said: "Alfie Langer, the greatest player in the game, said to the ref straight away that it was wrong and Toa immediately jumped to his feet and said 'I'm alright'. They were very disappointed in the decision.

"It was a big body blow to us because Warrington were able to get numbers on that side and we suffered dearly.

"Newy is not a malicious person and told me that he was ball-watching too long on Briers and all of a sudden he looked up, Toa was on his inside and as a reflex he reached up.

"I could probably point out other incidents in the game which were very similar."

Kohe-Love said: "It was similar to my sending off against Wigan in that it was a reaction tackle.

"It hurt and I went blank for a few seconds but it's just one of those things - I don't think he meant to do it.

"I don't think it mattered whether Newlove was on or off because the game had turned at that point and we were on top anyway."

Newlove said: "It was a reaction incident. I wasn't even looking at Toa, it was Briers who I was eye-balling. Briers passed it and then it happened so quickly that Toa was on top of me.

"There was nothing in it. It must have been the linesman who swayed the referee because as far as I was concerned I'm not sure if the referee saw it.

"I couldn't believe it. It wasn't a sending off incident and there have been worse tackes than that.

"I don't know if we'd have won if I had stayed on because Warrington were getting on top at that stage.

"But when I went off everything collapsed. If I had stayed on they wouldn't have scored 56 points."

On Tuesday Paul Newlove was found guilty of a careless tackle on Toa Kohe-Love by the Rugby Football League Disciplinary Committee. The judgement was sending off sufficient which frees the Great Britain centre to play in the Silk Cut Challenge Cup final against his former club Bradford Bulls at Twickenham on Saturday.