Rugby is brilliant these days. There are more than a few out there who feel it always has been, who have stuck with it since it was little more than a curious, esoteric ritual for those in thrall to mud, pain and lawlessness, but they have long since been joined by many others. Now rugby is glamorous, exciting, in multi-angle HD slo-mo and watched by an ever-growing audience of thousands, sometimes millions. And yet there remain a minority in the sport who are more ill-treated than they ever have been, who suffer intolerable injustice on a weekly basis despite their very best efforts to do the right thing.
It is quite possible that of all performers in the sporting universe rugby players are held to the most rigorous, and at times unreasonable, standards of conduct in the face of the maddening physical abuse to which their sport subjects them. You might think they would be treated sympathetically by the lawmakers, enforcers, commentators and spectators they so richly entertain and provide for, but the incidence of yellow and red cards is higher than ever. The opening weekend in the Premiership just gone was not a controversial one; even so we can pick out a few examples of the sort of betrayals the modern rugby player must endure on a weekly basis.
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