Rugby League: Hull Clubs Face Fines

The two Hull clubs are set to be fined following the crowd trouble at Sunday's Super League derby as the Rugby Football League aims to send their supporters a strong message before a potentially inflammatory rematch in September.

The RFL launched its investigation yesterday and promised a swift response as it emerged that four supporters had been arrested for public order offenses, Hull's center Kirk Yeaman had been butted and their captain, Lee Radford, spat at following their team's 30-20 win. The game was watched by the RFL's executive chairman, Richard Lewis.

The clubs have vowed to ban for life anyone involved in the fighting that followed a pitch invasion by the traveling Hull supporters, but the League still seems certain to punish them both under Bylaw 58a which holds clubs responsible for the behavior of their fans.

Hull were fined a record £50,000, £30,000 suspended, for breaching that bylaw after a larger-scale incursion following their defeat by Leeds in the 2000 Challenge Cup semi-final at Huddersfield. Their chief executive, James Rule, has conceded that the behavior of some of their supporters on Sunday was "unacceptable", but Rovers will also have to account for the violent response of a smaller number of their own fans, and the failure of their stewards to prevent the pitch invasion.

Hull KR's chairman, Neil Hudgell, described the incident as "quite deplorable" but said that with 1,600 Hull fans massed on the rarely used terrace at the Caravan Park end "no level of stewarding" could have stopped them.

The incident has raised fresh questions on the wisdom of having four derbies in Hull KR's first season in the Super League. There was no hint of trouble in a 23,002 crowd at Hull's KC Stadium on Easter Monday or when the clubs met in Cardiff in May despite the acrimony caused by Paul Cooke's move across the city. But after Sunday's events, the clubs and the RFL will be desperate to avoid a repeat in what is bound to be a tense atmosphere back at the KC Stadium on September 2.

Hull also revealed yesterday that their hooker Wayne Godwin played for most of the match with a broken bone in his foot, which will keep him out for at least six weeks. That could mean a debut for Danny Houghton, 18, in Friday's home game against Harlequins, as the club's other specialist hooker Richard Swain is still struggling with a back problem. Mathew Head, the Australian scrum-half who has joined Hull on loan for the rest of the season, is also doubtful with a shoulder injury.

The former Australia coach Chris Anderson resigned at Sydney Roosters yesterday after only 16 matches and Brad Fittler takes over until the end of the season.