Here is a classic Shakespearean tale of the heroic but fatally flawed protagonist who is destined to fall from grace, set against the backdrop of turbulent and uncertain times. Dean Richards, better known to his adoring public as Deano, is that man. Tens of thousands of words have already been amassed in charting his spectacular fall from grace so there is no need to retread that path. More useful to explore the turbulent and uncertain times of Rugby Union itself, yet another sport I confess to knowing precious little about, than pillorying the fallen one any further. Why kick a man when he’s already down in the gutter.

My starting point is a poignant passage in, of all places, The Mail On Sunday, (23/08/09) a paper whose journalists are little known for indulging in the sport of ‘establishment bashing’. In a wonderfully revealing piece, which demonstrates perhaps why he was awarded ‘Sports Writer of the Year’, Patrick Collins has this to say about the Harlequins Rugby Club.

“For almost 150 years, Quins have revelled in their status as the Establishment’s club of choice; the club most deeply rooted in Oxbridge and the City, in parliament and the higher professions. Learning that Harlequins have been sending out players with socks full of fake blood is rather like discovering that the MCC have been nobbling umpires.”

That little passage alone was guaranteed to hook me into the unfolding drama. But Collins was not content just to fire a broadside at the offending club. No, he had the sport itself in his sights…

“Bloodgate, an exotic description of a cheap deception, has struck Rugby Union with the force of a storm. After decades of self-delusion, rugby is starting to realise that it occupies pretty much the same ethical plane as those games which it has traditionally derided.”

Hot stuff. Collins should be working for the Guardian. Collins brings further evidence to damn the sport. Quoting a former England player and colleague of Dean Richards, Jeff Probyn, we can see that all is not squeaky clean in the world of rugby union. Probyn somewhat casually remarks, ‘The reality is Deano got caught doing something that the majority of directors of rugby have done.’ I bet he regrets making that casual remark.

Collins is gunning for another head to roll. He wants the head of Harlequins chief executive, Mark Evans on a plate. Evans, hoping to draw a line under the whole squalid affair offers the following few words: ‘I do not think there is a team in any kind of sport at any level that will take to the field and not try and take advantage of any situation. It is human nature’. Collins is quick to dismiss this defence as, ‘barrack-room legalese and slippery evasion.’ So there is a question worth pondering.

Is cheating human nature or is cheating merely the natural outcome of the commercialisation of sport? In the twenty years that I managed London Progress Table Tennis Club, including the last ten years in which the club was British Champions, I feel confident in saying that neither I as manager, or anyone associated with the venture, ever over-stepped the mark though we did, on occasions, push the rules to the limit. But, had there been the sort of money in table tennis that has flowed into professional rugby in the past fifteen years, who could be sure that we would not have overstepped the line.

Along with Bloodgate, rugby union, in its professional phase, has experienced other scandals that have long been associated with professional sport, the most infamous being cocainegate where three Bath players were banned by the RFU for refusing to take drug tests after an end of season club party. Add to this the on field eye gouging and you start to get a picture of a sport far removed from its noble amateur beginnings. Barney Ronay in an in depth report in The Guardian 31/08/09 argues, ‘Perhaps what links Bloodgate and Cocainegate is the sense that this is an industry buckling into unusual shapes under the tectonic pressures of 15 years of increasingly fevered professionalism.’ This sentiment is echoed by non other than the chief executive of the RFU, Francis Baron who admits, ‘We have to make sure the benefits of professionalism-which have been enormous-do not replace the importance of the core values of the game. We want our traditional values to be re-established and the faith of everybody in the game restored’.’ (Daily Express 27/08/09) These are all very fine words but once you have sold your soul to the devil it is no longer you who is calling the shots and I’m damn sure Mr Baron is fully aware of this. How many times have I and the handful of go ahead administrators in English Table Tennis dreamed of a powerful sponsor to kick start ping in this country, but as the old saying goes; ‘be careful what you wish for’. When there are big bucks to be made, core values can disappear pretty quickly. As the former Bath and England prop, Matt Stevens, banned for two years for testing positive for cocaine concluded, ‘People are starting to see that rugby players are in the limelight a lot more, like footballers and other kinds of entertainers. You have all the benefits of fame and wealth but there are also some real pressures with that.’ ( Guardian 31/08/09)’

Despite the predictable attempts by leading rugby officials and administrators to downplay the Bloodgate affair as a case of ‘the odd bad apple’, one senses that rugby, like all sport, professional and amateur, has to take a long hard look at itself. Should we concur with John Kingston, the temporary replacement for Dean Richards, who sums up the situation thus: ‘I’m saddened if people feel the reputation of rugby has taken a knock over the past few months but it is a very hard competitive world. It is a very physical sport and there will be times potentially when people do transgress slightly whether it be physical actions that take place on the field, which we’ve seen or whatever.” I love his final little catch-all, ‘or whatever’, which really could cover a multitude of sins. Shaun Edwards takes a similar stand to Kingston, when he argues in an article entitled, ‘Don’t believe snipers who say rugby is running out of control‘, ‘Make no mistake, rugby is under the microscope. Rightly or wrongly ( and I believe wrongly) we are seen as a bunch of potential cheats’.’ Guardian 4/9/9 ”

Or should we side with The Guardian’s Barney Ronay who warns, ‘ What will trouble the guardians of rugby is that the cheating brought to light in the Bloodgate saga goes right to the heart of rugby’s sense of self, its righteous and sustaining code of honour. (The Guardian 31/08/09)’

The next twelve months should determine which of the two schools of thought are more accurate.’