Faggots and peas! Is that still considered a traditional Sunday lunch over Castleford way?

The faggot family of the week look well pleased though

The incident is being officially investigated by the RFL.

If Hardaker has used such language, it needs to be stamped out.

Im not sure what punishment would be the correct one. The reason why we would punish him is to send out a message that the game is inclusive to everyone. Is a ban the best way to do that? I think, if Hardaker was amenable some public statements and work with the LGBT community might be a better way to address this.

May as well do both - some work with that community will help reduce his ignorance and hopefully a bit more sensitive and careful in the future. A ban will also teach him that there are consequences to doing such unacceptable things. Later on, if it happens again it will say a lot about his inability to learn.

If he'd called the ref/another player a woman what should the punishment be?

A trip to spec savers I would think

Seriously.....a public statement, AND spend some time working with the 6 percent of the UK population who are not heterosexual?

And all this, based on nothing more than supposition?

Have a word with yourself.

rlI'd hardly call it supposition.rl I think it's pretty blatant.

I think this puts the RFL in a slightly tricky position, assuming somebody has something more concrete than that video as evidence.

I'm not really a massive fan of treating match footage like CCTV, and I wonder how the complainant found it.

But, the bottom line is that it isn't language he should be using at all, and certainly not in public. The cameras are not hidden, so if he said it I couldn't bring myself to have much sympathy.

It is quite likely that he never even thought about any connotations, and it's a word that's crept into common vernacular in some circles (I used to play in a football team where it was bandied around a lot, and we had two gay players). But that used to be true of casual racism as well, and we wouldn't expect the RFL to turn a blind eye to that.

I suspect that there's some mileage to be had out of some education work here, and that might be more useful than a ban. Fine to be given to Stonewall or similar, some very public challenge to casual use of the word - which I bet a good half of SL players have in their insult bank.

All assuming there's some more substance to this than the Youtube video.

I am also assuming that the ref was content that it wasn't aimed in his direction, otherwise I would hope that the other F word being alleged would have been enough to get a red card.

Which source provided you with that stat?

Is Woman a slur which has been used to persecute a group of people?

N.igger, Faggot, Paki, Tranny, Woman. One of these words is different, one of these words is not the same.

Well assuming the complaint wasn't raised by the ref (as surely he'd have sent him off if he did) then I take it's from some person/people who watched that clip.

Now not condoning the words used but call me cynical but I highly doubt those that complained are really bothered/disgusted by the language at all, they just want to see a rival team's star player get hit with a ban.

Whilst I do not agree with abusive language, are we not taking this all a bit too far, its a mans game, played in an industrial environment by working class men, who may or may not be homophobic.

We are in an age, when you cannot say anything without offending somebody.

Live and let live, and move on, we cannot be all things to all men !!! or women !!! or dogs !!!

you can say almost anything you want without offending someone. You just can't say something offensive without offending someone.

Lets not pretend there is any excuse or mitigation in what Hardaker is alleged to have said. You wouldnt get away with it at work, nor would i and rightly so.

He may not have even heard it. On the Ask the Ref Twitter Q&A that does the rounds on a Tuesday one ref was asked about insults and he said they rarely hear anything. But that isn't the point. The point is whether he called the ref an effing fag, not whether the ref heard it or was happy about it.