if it is the case, then the RFL have every right to "make an example of Cas" as it has just been put. surely if Cas have quite evidently not taken their own means of action against the fans who hurled this abuse at the player then the RFL are quite right to step in and fine the club for not doing anything themselves.

if cas were so against the findings of the tribunal then they should have trawelled through their CCTV footage, get help from fellow fans who witnessed the incidents and bloody well shop the culprits and ban them from the ground for life.

to say that "it was ok cos the announcements shielded most of the abuse" is simply not good enough and you've got what you deserved. the RFL will more than likely throw your appeal out as quick as england went out of the world cup and quite rightly too.

deal with the punishment and learn from it, and stop bloody moaning about the club being branded and made a mockery of because its your own fans in the first place who have brought it upon you. if the club can't stick up for themselves then the fans should diret their anger at the club and not anyone else who has an opinion about it which we are quite rightly entitled to!

Referees get abused every week, at most every ground, and in most sports.

Their parenthood is often called into question.

In real life yes, but unfortunately not in the sporting arena, Racist or homophobic chanting will ALWAYS be more frowned upon than throwing a HARMLESS item on the pitch.

We are not talking a brick or a glass bottle, or running on the pitch to physically attack someone here.


No re-evaluation needed here - Just common sense!!

Thank you

these were the same "fans" who invaded the referees dressing room

What other reasons do you have for us not be included next time ? I believe you will find that the massive majority are fine and not idiotic like some of them are.

People are being a bit harsh on Castleford as a club imo. Just because some idiots chanted something at Gareth Thomas people want them out of super league! If every club who had idiots got thrown out there would be nobody even in the league!

Harsh on Cas, maybe, but how else are we meant to combat such behaviour?

Hopefully this will cause the Cas fans responsible to stop and think about what they're saying, as this implies that anything further to this will only cost their club - and ultimately the fans by way of ticket prices - more and more money.

For Cas themselves, it's an incentive to root out the trouble causers and ban them.

That said, the type of 'fan' who chants such obscenities are probably the type of person to whom it won't occur that their actions are damaging to the club and our sport.

So are you saying that as the RFL didn't punish Salford Cas shouldn't be punished for unacceptable behaviour? Ever heard the phrase to wrongs don't make a right



Cas have previous incidents of crowd indiscretions (Catalans) hence the RFL's actions.

As has been said previously Cas have no one to blame but themselves.

I am not condoning anything that other clubs fans (including Wigan's) may or may not have done but if they haven't been addressed by the RFL (which wouldn't surprise me given the inconsistency in other areas) that doesn't prevent the RFL punishing Cas for this.

=#8000FFNo, I'm saying that if Cas get fined for crowd trouble, Salford should have been for the flare throwing, and Leeds should have been for bottle throwing, the RFL are inconsistent and if any team had the balls to take them to court, the team would win every time.

Also, to everyone saying the chants were obscene etc, the only audible chant where I was stood was "we can see you holding hands" what's obscene about that?

Wasn't the Salford flare throwing incident at Castleford? In which case it's up to the Castleford stewards to deal with it.

=#8000FFThe Cas stewards did deal with it by throwing the group out, but the RFL should have also taken action because the same bloke was/is known for lighting Flares up at the Willows.

Genuine question now. Are flares illegal?

=#8000FFPretty sure they're banned in every ground in Europe after the Champions League game when one hit Dida at the San Siro.

They are in sporting venues, I saw a sign outside the willows at the turnstyle stating this.

I suggest you [ucheck your facts[/u before posting unsubstantiated garbage.
There wasn’t a problem at Hull KR it was possible in your head.

I heard "Gareth Thomas takes it up the ****" and "Does your boyfriend know you're here ?". That was truly pathetic. Hopefully we'll never hear those chanted again ever.

[urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/georgeriley/2010/06/homophobic_fine_is_wakeup_call.html[/url

I believe the interview with Thomas about it will be on 5live tomorrow, with clips on the BBC news channel tonight.

It probably has gone on at other clubs, but what Castleford fans need to accept is that is was worse at that their ground, hence the punishment. As for the fan who blamed Thomas, im amazed he is allowed to still post on these boards.

What reports? Oh the ones you've made up

While true, that's only part of the story. What seems to be getting put to one side in the debate is that the fine wasn't for the chanting, [iper se[/i, but for Cas not doing anything to stop it, or to identify and punish the offenders.

Looks like the punishment worked!

[urlhttp://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=rleague/10/07/09/RUGBYL_Castleford.html[/url



Wonder why they didn't do that at the time, instead of waiting 3 months...

looks like a case of stable door, horse bolting etc. I'm sure cas will use this in their appeal, but the facts remain that at the time the fine was imposed nothing had been done. If cas had been able to prove during the original hearing there was an ongoing investigation the fine wouldn't have been so severe. To me, it looks like the investigation which has led to these three bans has only come after the ban was imposed.

The investigation has been taking place since the issue was raised - can perfectly understand the comments as the bans have come since the fine and therefore looks suspicious, my biggest critisism of the club in the time from the game to now has been that it wasnt seen to be being active in dealing with the matter publicly at a time when the club needed to stand up and be counted 'pr dissaster on dissaster'
This has not been straight forward and in all honesty the banned so called fans have been guilty to a certain degree of giving themselves up through comments made away from the club. Other fans in the 'group' have come under pressure from other fans especialy since the fine to name and shame where previously there may have been concern over repercusions and a miss guided sense of loyalty, and although cctv footage is available it is difficult to seperate the fans singing abuse to the fans shouting and singing other things (there has been a seperation of the fans in the WRE for quite some time and often you find two or three groups of people singing different things, mainly due to the fact one particular group treat matchdays as a youth club type gathering with little inteest in the game itself).
I dont want to sound to be making excuses on the clubs behalf and was reluctant to post this message incase it appeared that way - as i say i have been, and in ways still am critical of the handling of this situation in the public eye and to the RFL, just waned to say all genuine Tiger fans are delighted we finally have some joy regarding these individuals and to say weening out these people has not been as easy as some may think.

An honest response, from an obviously genuine fan to reasonable debate. Fair play.