{"id":533698,"date":"2026-03-11T16:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T16:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/533698\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T16:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T16:59:08","slug":"rugby-player-to-stand-trial-over-rape-charge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/533698\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby player to stand trial over rape charge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A professional rugby player will stand trial after being charged with rape.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Bristol Bears hooker Will Capon, 26, appeared at Exeter Crown Court on Friday, having been accused of one count of rape in Exeter in September 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Capon, of Hampton Road in Bristol, was granted unconditional bail ahead of a trial at the same court in September 2027. He has denied the charge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A Bristol Bears spokesperson confirmed Capon was &#8220;suspended from all club activities pending the outcome of an ongoing legal matter&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;The club will not be making any further comment while legal proceedings are active,&#8221; they added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Capon will next appear in court for a case management hearing on 26 July 2027.<\/p>\n<p>More from Bristol<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Capon joined the Bristol Bears Academy in 2014 and has been with the club ever since.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/rugby-union\/64744582?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:He made his senior debut in 2018,;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;He made his senior debut in 2018,&quot;}\" class=\"link \">He made his senior debut in 2018,<\/a> helping the team secure promotion to the Premiership.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He last played for Bristol in May of the previous season, having undergone knee surgery after an injury during a pre\u2011season training camp in Portugal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On 5 March, Bristol Bears announced the signing of a new hooker, Sol Moody, from the Exeter Chiefs for this season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Follow BBC Bristol on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BristolBBC\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Facebook&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BBCBristol\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:X;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;X&quot;}\" class=\"link \">X<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bbcbristol\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Instagram;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Instagram&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Instagram<\/a>. Send your story ideas to us on email or via <a href=\"https:\/\/bbc.in\/47DEoQy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630&quot;}\" class=\"link \">WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Related Internet Links<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A professional rugby player will stand trial after being charged with rape. Bristol Bears hooker Will Capon, 26,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,59443,194577,39989,264845,264846,760,85,264844],"class_list":["post-533698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bristol-bears","tag-court-appearance","tag-exeter-chiefs","tag-exeter-crown-court","tag-professional-rugby-player","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-will-capon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}