Gender issues
Homophobia is ‘the dislike of or prejudice against homosexual people’ and is a contemporary issue in rugby. Nigel Owens is the first openly gay rugby umpire received some abuse from fans during a match in 2014. These fans received a two year ban from any matches. Nigel Owen refereed the world cup final 2015 and this obviously means that he is very good at his job and his sexuality doesn’t change that. Gareth Thomas, the former Wales and British and Irish Lions rugby player came out at the end of his playing career. Gareth played at the highest level, a lot of people believe that rugby is not traditionally associated with homosexuality which is of course absolute nonsense. Gareth is a regular presenter on television today but had his story happened forty or fifty years ago he would have …show more content…
A total of eighteen players have been caught for taking drugs and have either Been suspended by a sporting body for taking illegal substances, publicly admitted such use, have been found to have taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs by a court of law and have been suspended by a sporting body for failure to submit to mandatory drug testing. The most recent player that has been caught for doping is Nick Clancy is the most recent man to be caught of taking drugs and he received a two year ban.
Violence in sports
Violence still occurs in rugby on and off the pitch. In 2014 a man received a six month ban for punching a player on the opposite team twice. Violence in rugby is trying to be prevented. The foul play law in the official International Rugby Board is used to prevent violence in rugby. It states violent play as ‘anything a player does within the playing enclosure that is against the letter and spirit of the Laws of the Game’ under this comes punching, striking, stamping, trampling and