Robert Kitson, in his blog for The Guardian, wonders whether there is a place for sportsmanship in the elite game.
"To succeed in top-level sport – or write about it – there is no escaping the moral maze. Just ask Lewis Hamilton. Perhaps the most thought-provoking assessment of the McLaren formula one team's ill-fated attempt to pull a fast one came from Mike Atherton, once England's butter-wouldn't-melt cricket captain. "The biggest crime of all is not losing, but not playing fair," wrote Atherton. Elite sport, for those who earn a living from it, is not a popularity contest.
"True, of course, but never has the hunt for victory at all costs been so intense or widespread. To play fair is to end up nowhere; only a loser gives an inch, particularly in rugby. Cynically killing the ball in front of your own posts to prevent a potentially crucial score is an integral part of the job. There is a chance the referee will fail to bin you, ergo it is a risk worth taking. Sure enough, when Leicester's Ben Kay dived in to halt Sale's late surge on Saturday, Wayne Barnes kept his cards in his pocket and the 14-man hosts duly won by six points. As the son of a distinguished late judge, the quick-witted Kay is better qualified than most to differentiate between a blatant sin and the more serious misdemeanour, namely getting caught.
"It was ever thus since the oldest pro of them all, WG Grace, insisted a sudden breeze, rather than the ball, had disturbed his bails. Gamesmanship or cheating? It depends where you draw your personal line. Take Neil Back's infamous 'Back-Hander' which helped the Tigers win a European Cup at Munster's expense. To a man, Munster's players suggested they would have done the same. Those of us who muttered aloud about sportsmanship and winning with honour were rewarded with the sort of incredulous looks normally reserved for tweedy country parsons at Stringfellows."
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