What a farce! If Friday's match was so bad (see Greg McCallum's quotes in adjacent story), then why did the players who were found guilty only receive two-match bans this week.

The way Greg McCallum had been talking we thought they were going to throw the book at the two clubs.

'No further action' was the verdict for Tawera Nikau who was sent off for an alleged reckless high tackle on Mark Smith, which was not deemed to have sparked the ugliest of the four brawls which broke out during the game.

No other players were called up to the disciplinary hearing on the back of the nasty episode that followed and so it means the RFL disciplinary chiefs failed to administer punishment for the villains in that instance. Wigan's back row forward Dave Furner, who was seen by the Sky television audience to be hurtling punches at Paul Noone, must be laughing his socks off. He received a letter warning him of his future conduct and that was seen by the disciplinary chiefs to be the necessary action required.

Nikau's escape points to the fact that referee Steve Ganson and his touch judges got it wrong - and not for the first time in the game.

Early in the second half Warrington's David Kidwell and Wigan's Mick Cassidy decided to try out some boxing practice. Kidwell was sent to the sin bin, Cassidy stayed on the field. Cassidy has this week been suspended which means Ganson should have sent him off at the time but missed it. This is no benefit to Warrington now, when they had to play the game with one man less. But then again, surely if Cassidy deserved suspension then so did Kidwell.

During that same incident, Wigan prop Neil Cowie was sin-binned. He had charged in and used his knee to massage Kidwell's chest - Thai boxing style! Surely that was worse than a yellow card. Shouldn't he have been called up to the disciplinary hearing this week?

Danny Nutley was cited by the Rugby Football League's executive committee this week for throwing punches. He was not placed on report by Ganson but yet his actions were deemed to have merited a two-match ban. Ganson miss something again? And how come Wigan prop Francis Stephenson, who provoked Nutley with a blatant off-the-ball obstruction, got away with not even receiving a letter warning him of his future conduct.

And then there's Andy Farrell. The television images clearly show the Wigan and Great Britain captain kicking out at Nikau at a play-the-ball. Not only is that dangerous foul play, there is supposed to be no contact between attacking and defending players at play-the-balls. Yet there was not even a penalty decision and no citing of Farrell by the game's disciplinarians.

The Guardian does not condone the behaviour of the players who got stuck into one another but at the same time we do accept, in a high impact in-your-face sport such as Rugby League, that occasionally tempers will spill over.

This was a 'derby' game with players fired up for the start of the new season and the inconsistencies of decisions on the field would not have helped the players to keep their cool.

All that Warrington fans are asking for is some consistency - and that is including from the game's off-the-field disciplinary chiefs too!