Swing low sweet chariot, you're as low as you can go

A comment by Des Kelly in the Daily Mail this weekend really hit the spot.
....'rugby union can no longer look down its nose at footballers in a condescending manner. The game is up. Posh lads misbehave too.....'

Both halves of the comment are true, the linkage, however, may be inappropriate. The rugby players who considered themselves superior to professional footballers were themselves professionals. They were, however, army officers, teachers, solicitors, bank managers, policemen and doctors. All five nations had them in their ranks, although the farmers of Scotland and the miners of Wales were only too happy to put it over the English toffs given the chance.

These days rugby players are sporting professionals. There are no career backgrounds to mould a stereotype out of, and thereby lies the problem which has been laid bare at the feet of the RFU in England. The players are interested in money, they want to do the job with as little effort as they can, and they have no respect for the old school who are trying to hang onto the remnants of the game as they knew it.

The other home nations, with maybe the French as an exception, have had less of a cultural upheaval as they embraced professionalism. There is less money, are less clubs and less players, and we all know the Welsh were being paid anyway, long before they were allowed to be!!

So English rugby is in one heck of a mess; no structure, no CEO and no team management. Who then is going to step forward as the catalyst of change? I wonder if Seb Coe knows anything about rugby?