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What is acceptable violence?

  • John Beattie - BBC Scotland Sport commentator
  • 12 Mar 07, 05:39 PM

John Beattiesco_badge.gifire_badge.gif Glasgow - Friends of mine know that I don’t like to beat about the bush. So, here goes...why did Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan accuse a Scottish player of deliberately choking one of his players? And this leads to another question: What is an acceptable level of violence on a rugby pitch?

I have been quiet on the blog over the last two weeks because defeat by Italy was hard to take. There has been much gnashing of teeth in this country, and even people with no teeth have been provided with them so that they can join in. But I left Murrayfield at the weekend with a feeling that Scotland had played much better and that they should have beaten an Irish team which turned out to be not quite as good as the hype.

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England face fly-half conundrum

  • Rob Hodgetts - BBC Sport journalist
  • 12 Mar 07, 09:25 AM

Rob Hodgetts London - Talk about a different kettle of ball games at Twickenham.

England's rousing victory over France was a world apart from the dank November defeat at the hands of Argentina, the last time I was at headquarters.

Then, us fans booed as we sank to our lowest ebb in eons. On Sunday, we smiled as the shoots of recovery burst forth in the early spring sunshine.

It wasn't flawless, but that blimming chariot was as low as it's been for a long while.

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