Revealed: four-letter barrage that made fists fly

Australia's second-row Willie Mason was suspended for one match and fined £2,000 last night after a disciplinary hearing here that was not for the squeamish. Mason went into graphic detail about the verbal exchanges preceding the right hook that left Stuart Fielden concussed with a broken nose in the third minute of Saturday's win by Great Britain at Aussie Stadium, and will now be unavailable for the rematch in Brisbane on Saturday week. He may meet Fielden in the final on November 25, however.



Disciplinary hearings are open in Australia and after more than 20 reporters crowded into a fifth-floor room at the New South Wales Leagues Club, Mason was urged by the independent chairman not to hold back on details. "There's no shrinking violets here," said Greg Woods QC, despite the presence of his own young son, still wearing school uniform, and the huge second-row took the chairman at his word.

After the first of several replays was shown on a TV and a projector with freeze-frame facility, Mason began gently enough. "Obviously I'm patriotic about playing for Australia, and he's one of their team enforcers. When he ran the ball up I hit him [tackled him, his own counsel Alan Sullivan interjected]. As soon as I hit him he said, 'Come on, you f*ckin' Aussie c*nt'.

"I went, 'F*ck you, you Pommy f*ckwit'. Then it was pretty much an arm wrestle between us and he said, 'Let's go'. As soon as I was at first marker he said, 'I'll belt you, you Aussie twat', or something like that. He pushed me and moved towards me, I saw his right hand cocked and thought he was going to throw it. I thought I'd hit him first before he hit back."

And here's the video of the incident.