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Denny Solomona to face disciplinary panel over homophobic slur allegation

Denny Solomona of Sale Sharks

Denny Solomona is set to face an RFU panel over allegations that he used a homophobic slur.

The RFU statement reads: “Denny Solomona of Sale Sharks will appear before an RFU Disciplinary panel charged with conduct prejudicial to the interests of the Union or the Game, contrary to RFU Rule 5.12.

“In the weekend’s Premiership match between Sale Sharks and Worcester Warriors, Solomona allegedly verbally abused a Worcester Warriors player. The incident occurred in the second half of the match.

The Sharks’ winger will appear before a three-person independent disciplinary panel chaired by Samantha Hillas near Stockport on Thursday 5 April at 6:30pm.”

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The alleged incident happened at approximately 55 minutes following a scuffle between Worcester Warriors flyhalf Jamie Shillock and Sale Sharks’ wing Denny Solomona.

The referee mic clearly picks up Shillcock complaining to the referee about the repeated use of a homophobic slur by a Sale player.

The mic picks up the Worcester pivot claiming: “He said it three times” and “he made a homophobic slur twice”.

The complaint was picked up by the commentary team who suggested that may well be further “ramifications”.

In January Toulon centre Mathieu Bastareaud was suspended for three weeks following the use of a homophobic slur during his club’s Champions Cup, Round 5 match against Benetton Rugby at Stade Félix Mayol.

The ref mic picked up Bastareaud calling Benetton’s Sebastian Negri a ‘f***ing f****t’ which caused a storm of criticism for the Toulon centre.

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Bastareud took to Twitter to apologise for his actions, writing: “Good evening everybody, I want to apologize to my response to the insults of the Italian Player.

“I reacted badly in responding to his provocation, I am sincerely sorry for the people I hurt.”

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fl 1 hour ago
What is the future of rugby in 2025?

Smith generally isn't well connected to his forward pods; doesn't do a great job of distributing to those around him; and has inferior positional and contestable kicking games than Ford and Fin.


When England have had success over the past few years, its been either through (i) defensive rugby backed up with smart tactical kicking or (ii) high possession attacking phase play based on quick ruck ball. George Ford was key to the implementation of (i) in the RWC, and in the 6N win over Wales, and to the implementation of (ii) in the 6N games against Ireland and France. Smith did great at (ii) when running at tired defenders at the end of the Ireland match, but has never successfully implemented that gameplan from the start of a test because he doesn't distribute or support his forwards enough to create consistent fast ball and build attacks over multiple phases. Instead, his introduction to the starting side has resulted in much more playmaking responsibilities being forced onto whoever plays 9. Alex Mitchell copes ok with that, but I think he looks better with a more involved playmaking 10 outside him, and it really isn't a gameplan that works for JVP or Spencer. As a result of that the outside backs and centres have barely touched the ball when Smith has been at 10.


This might not have been too much of a disaster, as England have seemed to be moving slightly towards the sort of attacking gameplan that France played under Labit and Quins play (I think this was especially their approach when they won the league a few years ago - but its still a part of their play now), which is based on kicking to create broken field rugby. This is (i) a sharp departure from the gameplans that have worked for England in the past few seasons; (ii) bears very little relation to the tactical approaches of the non-Quins players in the England team; and (iii) is an absolute disaster for the blitz defence, which is weak in transition. Unsurprisingly, it has coincided with a sharp decline in England's results.

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