This was a non-story, going nowhere until a blatant self-publicist decided to raise his profile by wringing every last drop out of it.

In their desperation to be seen to be doing the right thing, the RFL has made something which would by now have long since disappeared off the radar, and could have been dealt with within the game, in to another chance for the entire sporting media to have a pop.

Will they ever learn.

And there lies the problem as the fine is related to the lack of action taken by Cas (in the panels view) which indicates that the RFL had to do something as Cas did not appear to be doing anything.

its a bit of a chicken and egg situation.

its also the reason why people referring to Thomas as a 'shameless self-publicist' really dont get it.

Maybe you are right, but someone has to tread that path first, Thomas is doing that, Roberts did it a decade ago. This is why it is 'shameless self-publicising' its showing it can be done, and making it an issue shows that it wont be accepted and the game will stamp it out.

We need people like Thomas to do what he is doing to change the attitudes of those within the sport, but also show to those outside it we would welcome them in.


Though some find it easier to blame the faggot for making a big deal about it. The big drama queen

No not at all , only when the thread drifts to discussing children and some posters appeard to be ' getting off ' on the subject did myself and others request it be locked , and also in this case it isn't the fact it was homophobic chants , it could have been racist or anything else , my argument is quite simply in the PC ' no win no fee ' litigation world we live in , I really dont see what Cas or any other club can do to stop this happening , or what action they were expected to take

And nobody has answered that question yet and nobody will , it really is an impossible situation for any club

it isnt, and it has been answered, on this very page

No the question is , how do you stop it ?

Fairly sure they dont have this problem in North Korea , or in Saudi Arabia , but you grab hold of a kid for swearing at you and see what trouble you end up in , so if you want stewarding costs to rise to the point were clubs cannot operate then fine

As a Cas fan, I hopethe club win their appeal - by demonstrating that they've taken necessary steps. But it's not a ridiculous amount- as I pointed out earlier, it seems to be the standard amount for crowd trouble: Ladt year wr got fined £40k, £20k of it suspended after the trouble at the Catalans game, Now we've been fined £40k with £20k suspended - but also had to pay the £20k suspended from last time. We need to sort out the idiots in our crowd who are costing us.

No it hasn't , Judge Grant stated what Cas didn't do , which is different to what they should have done , unless of course you can find something a bit more specific in his conclusions

Maybe if he got some of his mates at the House of Lords to give back to this country some sensible reasonable laws then we wouldn.t be in the mess we are

Public flogging would probably put a stop to it , what would you suggest ?

It isn't though really is it?

I think its fair to assume that if they have been fined for not doing A,B and C, then the way for clubs to avoid a fine is to make sure they always do A, B and C which in this case would be

Does anyone wish to attempt to tackle the point, that it is quite acceptable to discriminate, and take the p!ss out of, people with ginger hair but it's not ok to do the same with black or gay people. Can anyone highlight a difference for me please? Black people are born black, gay people are born gay, it is 2010 and we are all equal of course. Are ginger haired people not born ginger and also not equal? Why is chanting, aimed at such people as James Graham allowed to continue in our sport if we are so politically correct. Is it because James Graham is quoted after a game [i"If the crowd are giving me a bit of stick, that's fine," he says. "I'm sure they've got their reasons for that, but I'll take it with a smile. I love the noisy atmosphere at big games like this."[/i As opposed to the numerous quotes, radio interviews etc from Gareth Thomas where he goes on and on and on about being chanted at.