It seems the laws of the game and the UK legal system have a different view no need for homophobic comments in the game, intended or not

Typical of the "let's look for something to get all offended about and prove our liberal credentials" obsession.

Im tempted to quote alan partridge but it would probably be seen as a homophobic hate crime type of comment

God created adam and eve, he didnt.......

Now that is offensive

As I said, I was prepared for the criticism and knew exactly where it would come from. Ignorant zealots like him/her actually harm the fight against true discrimination.

No it's not. Racist and homophobic comments are banned. If a player can't sledge a member of of the opposition without resorting to racist or homophobic comments they are just thick. They know the rules and whether you agree with them or not its pretty simple to avoid breaking them. There are plenty of other ways to wind the opposition up.

Bingo! I ref every week and see lads of all ages can manage to have a dig at each other without resorting to homophobic insults. The fact there are no openly gay rugby league players tells you all you need to know about how far we need to progress as a sport

But should the punishment for being thick be as harsh as a spear tackle? This, plus the "hate crime" OTT comments and the misguided who think Baa Baa Black Sheep should be banned are what rub me up the wrong way (rub me up? Am I allowed to say that? Who knows these days?).

No one has ever thought that BBBS should be banned. It was a fabrication by the Daily Mail to discredit left wing councils in the mid eighties. The lie was carried on for decades by the right wing press and swallowed by gullible idiots like you.

This never happened!

To be honest what rubs you up the wrong way is irrelevant. Under its current deal, RL is picking up somewhere in the region of £17m from Sport England over the current 4-year funding period. That money is intended to develop the game, largely by recruiting as many people as possible to the sport. Then, along comes a clown like Hardaker with his pathetic playground taunts. At a stroke this potentially isolates the sport from a large segment of the population. Face up to it, in addition to gays there are swathes of the public who simply won't tolerate their kids being brought up with homophobic values. Then there's our sponsors who are at the end of the day trying to flog their products. This type of crap won't sit easily with them either.
So, quite apart from the direct offence caused by racist and homophobic abuse, our sport has a lot riding on matters like this. The RFL was right to ban Hardaker and Leeds are 100% correct in ensuring he puts in a stint working with a gay RL team in Leeds (which, incidentally, I'm told Hardaker was grateful to be given the opportunity to do in order to make amends to those he caused offence to). The reason they've done this is because they recognise how immensely harmful this can be to the sport - far greater than anything that passes as a "spear tackle" as seen in the modern game.

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