A big thank you to all those involved. news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 303809.stm

A big thank you to all those involved. news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 303809.stm

Do u mean a big thank you to Ian Smith.

No.

He was the one causing the trouble and throwing things?




I think not overturning it was the right decision as it needs to be shown as being wrong. Just a shame the club and decent fans end up getting punished for a few idiots.

Oh well, clearly one rule for us and one rule for others, let's just get on with it and move on...

I've made no secret that this is what I thought we should have done all along.

If the plan was to draw a line under this sort of behaviour and introduce a tough stance then it had to start somewhere. We shouldn't have been in the position to allow it to be us but the fact is we did.

As far as I am concerned, with all the will in the world you can not stop something like this happening again at any club unless you take extreme measures such as banning bottles being brought into the ground, putting up netting around the edge of the field or increasing security/police presence. None of which are really viable. If we had installed CCTV prior to this incident and had stewards who handled the situation more adeptly then I doubt we would have been looking at a fine anything like the one we got.

From what I can gather, the club didn't identify any fan who was involved in the bottle throwing. Maybe if they had done, the punishment wouldn't have been as harsh.

My heart bleeds for you.

err... thanks

Thats a fair enough point of view, the reason why it sticks in the throats of cas fans is that other teams have done thing as bad or worse and either not been punished or punished more leniently, which is hardly fair.

I'm sure at the end of the Leeds game in 2006 which we won 31-30, there is footage of the leeds fans throwing bottles onto the pitch. I have the DVD at home, i may have a look. Thats Leeds though, its different rules for them as proven on Saturday night (Offside is offside).

just what i was thinkin, did anything actually come of the flare incident for instance? (salford i think it was, could be mistaken) or the bottle throwing from leeds?

As far as i am aware they didnt even recieve an official warning.

The events at our ground? No we didn't get fined or warned over our failure to control spectators at our ground.

Salford, though, did identify and ban fans of theirs for their behaviour at our place (despite the lack of CCTV at the Lane). I gather we've not managed to do that about our own fans.

Even if you discount the actions of other fans at our ground what about the whole hull pitch invasion and didnt a salford fan once attack a ref? why were the punishment for these offences less than ours even though they were clearly worse?

Fair play to Salford for that. This is the what I've been banging on about when people have been using the excuse of "look at these other incidents that went unpunished" referring specifically to this one and the Rhinos' bottle throwing antics.

If actions are taken against the fans involved then there should be little or no further punishment towards the club because something has been done. You can't do a great deal to stop it happening in the first place but you can handle the matter properly when it does happen and it seems Salford have done that.

As for Leeds, I don't know if anything happened with any of their fans at all though it should be noted that I don't believe they endangered any players or officals. I realise that doesn't excuse what they did, but the Salford incident could have seriously injured Richard Owen and an entire team plus officials for what a selection of our fans did.

lets wait and see what happens in future before complaining about inconsistency though. Just because at times it has seemed clubs have got away lightly doesn't mean in my opinion that it should continue and there comes a point where it becomes clear things need to be cracked down on. Cas are perhaps unfortunate that it was decided that the event at their ground is the one that was "the last straw" but hopefully it will send out a message to all clubs (and fans) it isn't acceptable and if it happens elsewhere they will be punished in the same way.

If future incidents at other clubs are dealt with an similarly harsh manner i shall have no complaints, i wont hold my breath though.

Said it before, it's worth repeating...

I'm not going to moan about the fine because them's the rules - for us at least. But (always a but!) we now have a very uneasy precedent set as far as I'm concerned. Any given gang of thugs can now pretty much guarantee a crippling punishment for a rival team by simply turning up to their ground in neutral colours and kicking off. Absolute minimum of coordination required... a very basic plan over a pint should be more than enough. How come? I spent a couple of seasons down at Cas as a steward and I know what it's like. The numbers of officials are painfully low not just there but across all RL grounds and the actual police presence is pitiful. The bare minimum that clubs can get away with... a number based on the phrase "well, you don't get trouble at the rugby do you"?

A relatively small portion of the crowd leading the way (a dozen, maybe?) can affect a much larger group, especially through confrontation. Stewarding at current levels wouldn't have a hope in hell of containing it and, hey presto... a five figure fine for the club you love to hate. And yes, there are people out there who would actually relish such potential to hurt a rival, never mind just contemplate it. CCTV can only hope to catch the ones stupid enough to not wear hoods. So ban them next, presumably?

Having said all of that, I still don't believe that NOBODY knows who these ar*eholes were down at Cas.

Oh well... Move on. Til next time.

I agree. It's no good complaining about the size of the fine & who's got away with things in the past. It's our "fans" who caused this & people know who they are. Time to name & shame.

100% back you on this