Rugby, as we are continually told, is ‘a man’s game’ though recent events seem to be showing a rather cowardly and less masculine image.

In recent weeks and months, we have seen rugby union players Alan Quinlan of Munster, Dylan Hartley of Northampton and, most prominently, South Africa flanker Schalk Burger commit the quite heinous crime of eye-gouging. Or scratching someone’s eyes out, if you will.

Crossing codes to rugby league, it has been revealed that Bradford Bulls' Fijian international, Semi Tadulala, has been cited . . . for pulling an opponent’s hair!

Now correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t these incidents seem, stereotypically at least, to be more reminiscent of a scrap in a schoolgirls’ playground?

Hardly the macho image extolled by those who champion the game.

The advent of professionalism in the 1990s was always going to raise the stakes of victory and as a result ensure that cynical acts on the rugby field would increase.

However, it seems that rather than get in a good old-fashioned fist fight, today’s protagonists would rather plumb the depths of fair play, not to mention manhood.

The fiasco at Harlequins - whereby a fake injury to Tom Williams was enhanced with the use of a blood capsule in order to reintroduce specialist kicker Nick Evans to the fray with the game hanging in the balance – serves to underline this even further.

The fact that such a level of subterfuge has entered the modern game is alarming enough, though perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of this is that it was sanctioned by head coach Dean Richards.

Richards was a stalwart for England and the Lions as well as domestically with Leicester, and he was feared by opponents as a highly physical and intimidating No.8. It seems bizarre that a player so well-versed in the old school of rugby should become so entwined with all that is wrong with the game today.

Football’s image has suffered hugely in the last 10 to 20 years due to the increasing lack of sportsmanship and the exponential increase of players feigning injury. Comparisons have often been made to rugby, venerating the latter as a bastion of fair play and respect for the referee.

I have not always bought wholly into this argument; after all, you can get revenge on a player in rugby by punching him repeatedly in the face and earn no more than a ticking off. Even a finger in the cheek of a player in football and you are given your marching orders with no questions asked.

However, rugby has, by and large, held the moral high ground over its footballing cousins for a number of years, though these latest low-points might see that situation change.

In fact, the sports are slowly becoming more similar as professionalism becomes more entrenched and the game assumes a stronger position in mainstream entertainment.

One only has to look at the appearances of Matt Dawson and Austin Healey on Strictly Come Dancing to see a softening of rugby’s hard-man image.

Taken together with Gavin Henson’s penchant for shaving his legs, we are seeing almost an emasculated breed of players taking the field, unafraid to show their feminine side and far less intimidating as a result.

Having said that, I might just change my mind if I ever find Bakkies Botha or Simon Shaw charging headlong towards me!