RUGBY HAS issues, but it’s hardly alone in that. It doesn’t have a monopoly on cheating, what with Formula On hogging the headlines for the wrong reasons now. Of course, all sports have issues from time to time, and cheating has been around since sport was invented. Even WG Grace was at it.

For Rob Andrew to claim that the infamous “bloodgate” was the direct consequence of professionalism is simply too glib.

That said, the ERC board missed a trick by not banning Harlequins for at least a year from the Heineken Cup. It would have been entirely within their remit to do so given the lengths to which Harlequins cheated and then disrespected the ERC’s disciplinary procedures by their initial attempts at a cover up.

The doctor at the centre of that controversy now faces a threat to her medical career, which is the real tragedy in this tawdry story. By comparison, the player involved had his sentence reduced from 12 months to four months for finally coming clean, the coach received a three-year ban and the physio two years.

By and large, the ERC has been to the forefront in rugby’s campaign to eradicate violent or foul play which, until recently, appeared to be fairly unshakeable. Rugby has also cleaned up its act compared to the days of limited black and white coverage. There are simply too many cameras around now. But, as a result, any failures to act on this increased amount of visual evidence are all the greater.

Whatever else one can think or say about the 12-week ban imposed on Alan Quinlan for making contact with the eye area of Leo Cullen in the Heineken Cup semi-final, it at least made a statement. So too did the English RFU’s 18-week ban on Neil Best for a similar offence last season, even though his act was deemed “reckless” rather than deliberate.

That Schalk Burger should then receive just eight weeks for what seemed to the naked eye (so to speak) a far worse case of gouging against Luke Fitzgerald in the first minute of the second Lions Test smacked of political self-interest within South Africa. And the sickening aftertaste was made worse by the one-eyed comments of Pieter de Villiers and Burger’s refusal to apologise publicly.

Closer to home, alas, the degree to which individual disciplinary cases can be left open to charges of parochialism took on a new twist with the Rhys Thomas affair. Anyone who watched the Scarlets-Leinster game on the opening weekend of the Magners League will struggle to erase from their memories the sight of the Welsh frontrower charging, head-first, like a human cannonball at Shane Horgan at the base of a ruck.

Neil Paterson wouldn’t be the first referee to take sanctuary in issuing a yellow card for what clearly was a red card offence. Most likely, it would take a stronger and more experienced referee than the Scottish official, who was taking charge of his 15th Magners League game, to have issued a red card, or better advice from the sidelines. Nonetheless, this was another example of the poor standards of refereeing at the moment outside of an ever-shrinking elite.

For a similar offence in, literally, the opening minute of this season’s Guinness Premiership of charging, head first, at an opponent (Wasps’ Joe Simpson) in a ruck, Harlequins’ George Robson was red-carded by Dean Richards (the referee, not the coach), then suspended for six weeks by an English RFU disciplinary panel. Case closed. Job done.

In any event, after the citing commissioner – Simon Thomas – had ruled Rhys Thomas had a case to answer, a Welsh RFU disciplinary committee was set up – as is the way of the Magners League. The three wise men comprised a legal representative, solicitor Terry Vaux, Maldwyn Beynon, the chair of the WRU disciplinary committee, and a former Welsh international, Brian J Jones.

The latter won two caps against Ireland and France – in 1960, ie, 49 years ago – and, as Neil Francis pointed out in the Sunday Tribune last weekend, is a lifelong member of Newport FC, while Beynon is a member of Gwent RFC.

Rhys Thomas joined the Scarlets this season from the Newport Gwent Dragons.

In a truly incredible judgment, the disciplinary panel decreed that Thomas’ yellow card was sufficient punishment on the grounds the video footage couldn’t show he actually struck Horgan. The league’s chief executive, David Jordan, could have vetoed this judgment, but perhaps he felt it was too much of a political hornet’s nest to take issue with this particular case. In the heel of the hunt, the referee, the WRU and the Magners League have let the game down. Simple as.

Now, which club anyone on a disciplinary panel is a member of, or where a player came from, may be entirely co-incidental, but as long as the Magners League decrees that the three member unions remain in charge of their own disciplinary panels then, in the light of judgments such as this one, they will always be open to charges of cronyism.

And until the league appoints an independent disciplinary chairman, or at the very least three of them so a case such as this would be adjudicated by a Scottish disciplinary panel, then the league will remain open to such charges.

Television invariably has an influential role here. Recall the slow-mo replays of the Quinlan-Cullen incident on Sky Sports News and on their rugby coverage, and compare that with the predictably blinkered coverage on South African television. When television replayed Burger gouging of Fitzgerald, Naas Botha said: “A tough call on Schalk but you’re not allowed do that.”

When repeated, Bobby Skinstad said: “There was definitely a transgression there.” No kidding Bobby?

Setanta Ireland made as much of it as they could, and Welsh colleagues confirm that BBC Wales took Rhys Thomas to task for his impersonation of a human cannonball.

But one wonders if Rhys Thomas had been picked for the Lions and the match had been covered by Sky what the disciplinary outcome would have been?

At the very least, the IRB should show leadership here and – remembering their comparatively acute interest in the Trevor Brennan case – rap the Magners League on the knuckles for their failure to safeguard the game they govern.

gthornley@irishtimes.com