Nick Cain column: Gypsygate opens a can of worms for World Rugby

Where does offensive, derogatory or discriminatory language, or behaviour, begin and end? That is the question that World Rugby are going to have to adjudicate on for evermore following their decision to fine England loosehead Joe Marler £20,000 and ban him for two matches following his verbal spat with Welsh tighthead Samson Lee in the Six Nations match at Twickenham.
It is a can of worms, and one that World Rugby will find it very difficult to close the lid on. Marler was punished for “unsporting and discriminatory” comments towards Lee when, during a bout of push-and-shove between the two packs, the referee's microphone relayed him saying, “gypsy boy, get back in your caravan”.
Lee has a gypsy background. However, as slurs go it was pretty tame, without a pejorative or obviously abusive word in sight. Yet, the fine given to Marler is one of the heaviest handed to an individual player by a rugby disciplinary tribunal.
The World Rugby disciplinary tribunal did not reveal whether Marler was on the receiving end of a racial slur himself, as alleged by Conor O'Shea, his rugby director at Harlequins. O'Shea said that Marler had been called, “a posh English ****”.
World Rugby are due to publish the full findings of their three-man judicial committee this week. We should then find out what they did to investigate whether discriminatory comments were directed at Marler. Naturally, it should make clear what they did to check the audio record of the match from all pitch microphones for derogatory comments.
We should discover whether they now intend to pass a regulation that this should apply in future to every international match, and extend also to professional club matches. We should also be informed whether the disciplinary panel checked the assertion by England flanker James Haskell that Lee is known in the Welsh squad by a nick-name with a gypsy connotation similar to the one Marler used.
We should find out, too, what view World Rugby have on the reminiscences of Wales loosehead Rob Evans about his early encounters with his Llanelli team-mate, Lee. Evans said the following in an interview before the England game.
“I remember playing with him when I was like 11, all the boys were talking about Samson Lee, this gypsy. And he turned up and he was rubbish! He's got better since… The only thing I remember really from the game was the smell. He smells a bit better now.”
This is banter between mates, but it just shows how rocky the road World Rugby are treading could get.
A health study forecasts that 38 per cent of Britons will be obese by 2025. So how long will it be, for instance, before the affectionate term “fat boy” applied to generations of rugby props is outlawed?
Another issue confronting World Rugby's new police force are the ripe four letter expletives by players that TV commentators are habitually apologising for on air. It's another bad example for the young and impressionable audience Rugby Union want  to connect with.
Should we attempt to ban players swearing on the pitch? £1,000 per expletive? It's unenforceable – and if it was many squads would soon be skint.
Here's a solution. Allow the referee to use the microphone to explain his decisions to the viewing audience, but otherwise turn it off. If a player or match official makes a complaint of racial discrimination, or abusive behaviour, the referee's audio system should have a recording track which is activated throughout the match.
Let the audio evidence be examined by the citing officer, as with other offences, and if there is a case to be answered let the disciplinary procedure take its course.
No sooner had World Rugby waded in to impose ‘correct' disciplinary procedure on the Six Nations after they failed to handle the Joe Marler affair to their satisfaction, than it emerges that they is pussyfooting around another serious breach to their regulations.
This involves the French Union flouting a 15-week suspension served on the Stade Francais hooker, Laurent Sempere, for eye-gouging during his side's European Cup home pool win over Leicester at the end of January.
French Union and Top 14 officials granted a Stade appeal against the European Cup disciplinary decision in February, which has allowed Sempere to play in the Top 14. This, despite World Rugby regulations that disciplinary sanctions apply to all competitions.
Phil Winstanley, rugby director at Premiership Rugby, says that the French decision creates massive issues – in particular for World Rugby, which have failed to take the French Union to task, pleading it is out of their jurisdiction.
“For World Rugby to be unable to get involved in the Sempere position and it to be out out of their jurisdiction, but yet they can call on a decision with Marler and the Six Nations, is absolutely ludicrous,” said Winstanley.
“We're not prepared to allow this to go away.”  He is not alone.