Cheating happens everywhere all the time in every culture and in every country where someone either thinks they can away with it or simply oversteps the line between playing to letter of the law and breaking the law.

The idea that the English project themselves as the guardians of fairplay is simply part of the image that many Australian journalists project onto England rather than having any serious substance. The English media and people in England don’t imagine or suggest that they play any fairer than the rest of the world although they, like the sporting press in every country including Australia are fast to rabidly highlight any suggestion that another country might have conducted itself in an unsporting manner.

First, it has been widely reported that this fake blood lark entered English rugger from the Antipodes. Just as the New Zealanders forced England to ditch its traditional amateur approach to rugger, so too English rugger chaps have been forced to adopt nefarious Antipodean methods in order to compete in the professional era.

Second, you need to ask yourself why the RFU is the only body in world rugger prepared to take a stand against such nonsense. Such practices are equally common elsewhere, yet only the noble English are willing to do anything about it.

Third, it is patently absurd to claim that the pitch was “doctored” when 700 runs were scored on it in the 3rd and 4th innings.

Your article is a classic example of the atavistic Australian “Bodyline complex”. This complex is like a facial tic passed down through the generations – as soon as England give your boys a good spanking, we hear poppycock about perfidious Albion. The Sydney Morning Herald must use the “Bodyline II” tag about once every two years. It’s quite comical.