Flag fuss unfolds after Castleford Tigers' lose to Catalans Dragons

A storm blew up on social media when the allegation was made following Dragons’ 36-18 win over Tigers at Stade Gilbert Brutus.

The club, however, says flags are permitted as long as they do not cover up advertising boards.

Israel Folau, who was sacked by Rugby Australia last year after claimng gay people would go to hell unless they repented their “sins”, made his Catalans debut and scored with his first touch during Saturday's game.

Twitter user Chris Grey posted a picture on Twitter of his sister wearing a rainbow flag, which he said she had been told to remove.

Alison Grey later told The Yorkshire Evening Post: “I was in a group of eight and we had two flags.

“I walked through security with the flag around my neck. They checked my bag and said nothing when we walked in.

“It was two separate groups of security who came to speak to us. I was told I needed to put the flag in my bag as it wasn’t allowed.

“We pointed to the other flags in the ground and asked why they were allowed.”

But a Catalans spokesman pointed out local press pictures of rainbow flags on show in at the match and insisted they have no policy against such items.

“The only comment at the moment is flags are allowed in our stadium,” the spokesman said.

“As you can see on the picture and on her tweets, she kept her flag during the whole game.

“We asked [her] to remove a flag on a sponsor board. [It is the] same rule for all flags.

“We’ll have all the details tomorrow in the security report.”