RL club investigates player over ‘racism’

The controversy involving Hull Kingston Rovers full-back Ben Cockayne came just hours before today’s Good Friday Derby with Hull FC.

The Rovers star was said to have used the two word remark on a friend’s Facebook page.

It is believed the player, who began his career with Normanton Knights, was referring to a wallet which he thought he had lost in a taxi, with the comment made in reference to the driver.

The club issued a brief statement which said: “The club have been made aware of comments allegedly made on a social networking site by Ben Cockayne.

“The club will be carrying out a full internal investigation and nobody from the club will be making any further comment until that investigation has been completed.”

The Rugby Football League, which has a Kick Racism Into Touch campaign, said: “We will be speaking to Hull KR about a potential social media matter.”

One of the rugby league’s brightest talents, Cockayne has been involved in controversy previously. He was given a suspended jail sentence in 2009, after he and Castleford Tigers’ reserve player Steven Hayward punched and kicked Kiel Thompson following a pub dispute in Normanton.

Judge Alistair McCallum branded their behaviour, which was caught on video, as “just appalling.”

Both Cockayne and Hayward admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

In mitigation the court was told Cockayne was a rising star and it would be a devastating shame if his promising career was “snuffed out through 20 or 30 seconds of insanity”.