Rugby has slipped into the gutter in the professional era, writes Neil Francis in the Irish Independent
"Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow, the shadow is what we think of it, the tree is the real thing - Abraham Lincoln
"What we are about here is charting the slow, imperceptible erosion of standards, the unambiguous degeneracy of the game. Not the game itself but the people who play it.
"When money comes, empirical evidence suggests that the constitutional standards enjoyed and employed by players deteriorate.
"I was quite happy to endure the slow death of a thousand cuts. Events from the 2007 RWC to the one just past suggest that we will be lucky to get 100.
"On balance, most of the players we have seen in that period have been men of character, integrity and honesty possessed of compassion, a grounded conscience and a working moral compass -- all inherently decent men.
"My problem is that the rotten one per cent has grown from a tiny minority to an uncomfortably prominent subsection and show no signs of disappearing any time soon."
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