LONDON (AP) England prop Joe Marler has been banned for two matches and told to pay 20,000 pounds ($28,300) to an equality charity by rugby's world governing body for using a racial slur toward an opponent during a Six Nations match.
World Rugby charged Marler with misconduct after both England's Rugby Football Union and the Six Nations took no further action against him for calling Wales prop Samson Lee a ''gypsy boy'' in England's 25-21 win on March 12.
A three-man judicial committee said Tuesday that Marler's remark was ''unsporting and/or insulting and/or discriminatory by reason of race or ethnic origin,'' bringing the game into disrepute.
Marler accepted the charge. He has apologized to Lee and been reprimanded by England, but the decision not to sanction him caused an outcry.
