I WAS thinking about the Bowyer-Dyer fallout only yesterday in the light of what happened between me and Neil Back in the Zurich Premiership final at Twickenham last month (Back, the Leicester flanker, punched Worsley off the ball and was banned for four weeks by the RFU). There is a line to be drawn, but there are different boundaries. It is about establishing those boundaries.

In football, punching is a no-no. In rugby, it is not. There is a code of conduct almost that if you do punch someone in rugby because of an illegal offence, it is acceptable. It someone oversteps the mark or does something illegal, they can expect to get punched. It is an instinctive reaction. If I had pulled Back’s shirt then I could have expected to get punched and he would probably not have got a ban. I did not, so he got banned.

It is because of the physical nature of the game. Being confrontational is an integral part of rugby. In football, it is not so important. But there is a mark and people have to be careful not to overstep it in rugby. Deliberate stamping on the head, or leg, ankle or groin, or gouging, is unacceptable and people should be punished accordingly. In that regard, gratuitious foul play should be punished and there is no reason why rugby should not be subject to the same principles that apply to, say, football. But it has to be taken in context.

The game is a lot cleaner nowadays. It is a professional sport and you are accountable for your actions. There are heavy financial implications. But physical supremacy is part of rugby. If a referee doesn’t pick up on things, players have to act sometimes to sort it out themselves.

If you take a backward step, you may lose the game. The problem in football is the hatred that can be incited by an incident. In rugby it is quickly forgotten. You don’t see sets of supporters trying to attack each other. Footballers hold their grudges much longer. I was talking to a few recently — I won’t name names — and they said they hold grudges for a long time.

I have some very good friends off the pitch who have done stupid things to me on it, but it is soon forgotten. If I think someone has been out of order, I will talk to them after a match and tell them so. But as I say, it is about boundaries.

Aggression in football is often unfairly judged

RUGBY is where the violence is, but football makes the headlines. It’s a nonsense that rugby should routinely excuse and justify punches while football is carpeted for a minor scuffle such as Lee Bowyer tangling with Kieron Dyer. Yet again, football is victimised for being the most popular sport in England.

A punch is a punch, illegal in football and rugby. Is it OK in rugby because it happens more often? Because they use their hands? In football, you see bad challenges, but full-on punches or head-butts are extremely rare. Players will stand their ground. They have to — it’s a tough game — but when they fight, it lacks real venom.

Snarling aggression and excessive passion on the football pitch are not the same as assault. Bowyer didn’t cross that line. In football, faking injury is a bigger problem than causing injury. Sometimes I feel embarrassed by my profession. I meet rugby players who think footballers are pansies. The way some play-act and collapse at the slightest contact makes it hard for me to disagree.

Clampdowns on bad tackling mean that players are far better protected than in the past. You have your disagreements, but you get on with it. Football is not as gentlemanly a world as rugby; even so, we forgive and — mostly — don’t hold grudges.

Players wouldn’t use the police to make complaints. They rely on the football authorities to come down hard. It never occurred to me that if I hit or fouled someone in the heat of the moment I could face prosecution months later.

And by the way, before I turned professional I played in the Kent League. We used to play a Metropolitan Police team. The joke about them went: “They take no prisoners.” They were one of the most physically brutal teams around.

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