Castleford Tigers set to appeal fine for abuse of gay player

The Super League club expected to be given a stern warning or a large suspended financial punishment after the incidents during the game at The Jungle in March.

But the Rugby Football League yesterday delivered a damning verdict following their own investigation into the abuse hurled at Thomas, the former Wales and British Lions captain, who announced he was gay last December.

Incensed Castleford, who have 20,000 of the fine suspended until the end of 2011, are set to appeal and will meet legal advisers later this week.

"To say we are disappointed and shocked is an understatement," said chief executive Richard Wright. "The evidence does not support the decision and does not in any way support the scale of the penalty. We totally refute the outcome of the hearing."

Former RFL legal adviser Rod Findlay has been working with Castleford – who must also pay 20,000 of a separate fine suspended for crowd trouble last year – and said: "There was some chanting. We agreed this with the tribunal panel – there were three incidents lasting only a few moments, two of which were drowned out by public address announcements.

"But the charges are not that there was chanting – they are that the club failed to take its best endeavours to prevent or stop any chanting.

"This the club refutes totally. It could not have done any more on the day."

The RFL last year forged a strong link with gay rights charity Stonewall and are the only national governing body to have joined its diversity programme, winning praise for the way it deals with issues surrounding homosexuality.

Castleford have found that out to their significant cost as the governing body set a new first – several Tottenham fans were banned from football grounds for three years after aiming indecent chants at Portsmouth's Sol Campbell in 2008 while Blackpool and Preston barred some of their supporters for 12 months following homophobic abuse at a fixture the same year but, until now, no club itself had been punished in such a fashion.