Quote: rhinoms "Firstly the majority of the letters are just whinging and giving the "we were hard done" approach and the rest were just an excuse to chelp about Leeds without actually mentioning that the Saints end was chanting plenty of obscene things directed at Ryan Bailey.
The authors fail to mention previous warnings issued and the small fact that homophobic chants etc are ILLEGAL!'"
Firstly, if you are responding directly to me, deal with the the points i raise to coment on rather than your opinions or comments of other posts/letters.
Second, i highlighted examples of various issues relating to the general behaviour of r.l fans, i didnt try to document each individual case for scrutiny.
Third, i have said nothing in a negative manner towards your club, if anything my comments could be described as complimentary.
Fourth, several clubs have received previous warnings and have either offended again on both the same and different issues - the point being brought into question is the RFL's consistency in dealing with these issues and the fairness of the punishment handed out.
To give a similar example of this i questioned the punishment recieved by both the Leeds club (throwing bottles onto the field of play) or the Salford club (throwing live flares directly at opposition players) on previous visits to the Jungle, for that matter the failure of the Castleford club to control the crowd during these incidents. Certainly not the fine or punishment imposed on the Castleford club after the Catalan game.
Finally, many (certainly not i) question the legality of Homophobic chanting. The simple fact is this is not an issue being dealt with by the courts and people are questioning the RFL's ability to handle the issue in a fair manner.
Are we now saying to our children (the next generation of fans) it is wrong to abuse people on the basis of there sexual orientation or colour of there skin, but it is acceptable to abuse people for being fat, ginger, bald ect ?
(regardless of the legal issues here, this kind of abuse ruins peoples lives specificaly the young, some who have committed suicide or caused themselves serious illness to try counter this type of abuse).
My own opinion be the Castleford club to a certain degree got what they deserved for there handling of the incident however the club has carried out several improvements to combat the problems both they and other clubs face after the Catalan incident and feel the fine is more of a statment/reaction to the level of press interest Mr Thomas and his agent have created (i do not condone in any way the chanting that was directed at the player and am ashamed of the fact my club has been dragged through the dirt due to it, i will however leave open to scrutiny/opinion his reasons for raising the point with anyone who will give the time to listen and find it astonishing that a person can state they were made to feel ''scared'' when on a rugby field surrounded by team mates, with police and stewards present and a minute later they acknowledge the fact the abuse was carried out by a small group of teens and other than them the people he came into contact with were some of the nicest people he has met).
- grow up 
