Cameron Hill

Now you might remember this story from Friday's pod, but just to give you a refresher, the 2014 World Cup winner was appearing as a pundit on TV coverage of England's men's Six Nations clash with France on March 14th.

Matthew Smith, a council member representing Warwickshire, posted on Facebook, Can someone please explain to me, WTF does Maggie Alfonsi know about men's rugby?

At an independent hearing last week, Smith accepted the charges and was stripped of his council privileges for seven months, which include tickets to England games, free meals and travel expenses.

He also wrote a letter of apology to Alfonsi, who had previously been a member of the council herself, but the 74-time capper released a statement following the hearing last week, criticising both the incident and the outcome of the hearing.

What is often overlooked is the impact on those targeted, she says.

I now have to speak publicly about this, knowing it will lead to further misogyny and sexism from others who share these views.

I will be continually forced to revisit this, which will cause further frustration and distress."

Sadly, many women working in sport continue to face criticism simply for commentating, reporting, presenting, analysing or sharing opinions, the statement continued.

I am not the first to experience this and I will not be the last.

Too often these comments become accepted as part of the job.

They should not be.

Now she also called for Smith to be removed from the board.

and this morning Warwickshire RFU released a statement confirming that Smith had resigned from his position as chair of their board in light of that disciplinary process.

The statement added, We want to be clear that we take issues of sexism and misogyny seriously.

That's about all for today's Rugby Daily.

Remember, you can subscribe to this podcast wherever you get your fix so you don't miss an episode Monday to Friday.

I'm Cameron Hill and I'll be back with more Rugby Daily for you tomorrow.

I'll chat to you then.

I'm delighted for a World Cup quiz.

I've been getting into the mood of it this week, especially after I've seen Ben Syme's social video calling out for Panini stickers.