TRF Regular Teh Mite recently had an article published in the Northampton Saints match day programme. We are now please to present this on TRF.

With the exception of the Ashes victory sport has been put through the wringer as far as the headlines are concerned over the past few weeks. The art of timing is certainly interesting because as I’m writing this Sky News are showing reports of the violence between Millwall and West Ham fans at their Carling Cup tie. The previous night the news bulletins were dominated by the latest twist in the ‘Bloodgate’ saga. It’s got me to thinking.

The running battles between the two sets of hooligans, and with the police, recalled similar scenes from the 1970s and 1980s, when football was far from being the sanitised, Sky Sports hyped mega-business that it is today.

But at least the old school hooligans only fight with other thugs, away from built up areas and homes. While that's still not acceptable, at least they understand what they're doing and keep it to themselves. It seems that the new generation really don't give a monkeys and think giving anyone ‘who ain't one of them’ a smack is their way to gain 'respect'.

Here’s an example for you.

On the Saturday after the Saints v Rotherham game, I was sitting in the garden of the nearby rugby-pub with a few friends playing cards. All was well until around 6pm when the local soccer louts came strolling in, hurling abuse at anyone wearing a rugby shirt, singing their songs about the “N.A.T.” and causing general mischief.

I'm not proud to admit it, but I actually knew a couple of them.

Anyhow, it was (for want of a better word) interesting as I was chatting to a friend about my cousin when one of the louts injected his opinion of “I know him, he's a ****.” I stopped the conversation, looked straight at him (with his smug grin, stupid hoodie n'all) and said: “Oi, that's my cousin you're talking about.” (Being a big-ish fellow, I can get away with that more then I should – I don’t recommend trying that at home kids!)

Oddly enough, the cocky hoodlum (on his own) went very sheepish as he had none of his so-called mates to back him up. As already said numerous times over the years, most of them these days are kids who do it for the ‘scene’ and seem to think they're cool because of seeing one too many Nick Love or Danny Dyer movies.

But while in football the bad headlines focused on the fans, in rugby it is the on-field participants, those in the limelight, who have been at the centre of the negative press for weeks on end. If you were playing scandal bingo you’d have been able to call “House!” a very long time ago.

We’ve had an England international – and housewives favourite thanks to his time on X-Factor: Battle of the Stars – confess to a cocaine habit before being banned for two years.

Then his former team mates get into a bar brawl, refuse to take drugs tests and resign before getting bans for several months for bringing the game into disrepute.

Ironically enough, Harlequins, who were the other team involved in the aforementioned punch up, have been involved in a complete Horlicks and fiasco of the Dean Richards-led ‘Bloodgate’ fiasco. Their director of rugby has gone, as has the chairman, and I’m sure you, like me, are completely bored with.

It wouldn’t be so bad if it was combined to a single club, or to a single country, but rugby is presenting the headline writers with a very easy job.

In South Africa, a club called Heidelberg was recently banned from all competitions for 15 years after spectators attacked players from an opposition club. And in a Currie Cup match a couple of weeks ago, a ‘fan’ of the Griquas threw a brandy and coke in the face of referee Paul Roos after the Blue Bulls had scored late on to win the game. Incidentally, Roos has now resigned as a referee and is taking legal action.

Meanwhile over in New Zealand, 100 spectators and players took part in a mass brawl at the end of a school rugby semi-final in Auckland.

But the governing bodies haven’t helped themselves either! Just think of the pitiful bans handed out to Schalk Burger and Sergio Parisse for blatant eye gouging (especially considering what a few of us closer to home know about eye-related bans).

Or the tiny fine for the SARU following the ‘Justice 4 Bakkies’ armbands during the third Lions test, itself a pathetic, rebel without a cause, gesture.

Or the continual bleating from Graham Henry or John O’Neill about the ELVs or game tactics.

It probably seems like I’m just going on for the sake of it. But the truth is that rugby has been professional for only a short time now, around 15 years. And just like a normal teenager, it’s trying to grow up too fast and act like too much of a big man without having the social skills yet to be taken seriously.

Rugby union, much like cricket, is generally considered a gentlemen’s sport – played and watched by those of higher moral fibre with a real amateur ethos.

But these days rugby is no longer amateur, and is at a crossroads. It can either pull itself together and be prepared for that final thrust into adulthood. Or, it can continue down the path of a stroppy teenager and find itself contending with the pathetic cheating and underhandedness that’s been creeping into the game. It’s a slippery slope either way, so let’s make sure we go the right direction.