Blood - the real thing

While I was away, Bloodgate continued to splatter its way across the sports pages of those newspapers which care about rugby. My colleague Brian Dick has had his say, rightly pointing out that Harlequins are probably not the first or last club to engage in what is downright cheating.
Others have rightly agonised about the damage this is doing to rugby's image (I remember Brian's predecessor as Post rugby correspondent, the legendary Michael Blair, warning about the dangers of professionalism in 1995 while the sport was still having the vapours about whether to leap in).
And I witnessed something at the weekend which should make rugby folk realise that they really don't have a monopoly on sportsmanship, nor on toughness - if they ever did in the first place.
I am indebted to Tamworth supporter Dave Tricklebank who put this photo on his picture gallery website.

As someone said to me when they saw that picture: "The club physio didn't buy that in a joke shop in London."

This is AFC Wimbledon central defender Alan Inns during their Blue Square Premier game against Tamworth at The Lamb on Saturday.
Inns suffered the injury in a clash of heads with a Tamworth player but was swiftly bandaged up and returned to the action - only to immediately attempt to head away a goal-kick moments later.
Unsurprisingly, the cut reopened, a yard or so of blood-soaked bandage became unwrapped and Inns crumpled to the floor, unsure where he was or what day it was.
Having admitted defeat (or more likely, had the physio do it for him), he was led off to the dressing room, passing in front of a packed Shed stand containing several hundred of Tamworth's most rabid supporters.
Now, the occupants of the Shed tend not to be overly sympathetic to opposition players who are substituted. The chorus "You're not wanted any more" has a closing line with which I won't trouble you here while referees are often advised to make sure they add time on for the ensuing delay.
Yet a spontaneous burst of applause rang out down the stand as Inns was led off. In 25 years in the Shed, I think I have only ever seen that for players carried off with broken legs.
It was hugely inspiring and totally in character with a game that ended in a 2-2 draw and provided more thrills and spills than most of last season's Blue Square North campaign put together.
After the game, fans of both clubs mixed happily in Tamworth pubs, even chatting with the members of the Metropolitan Police's finest who made a completely unnecessary visit to my local.
It's an afternoon I'll remember for the rest of the season - and having seen pictures of fake blood spread across the sports pages for what seems like weeks, the reaction of nearly 2,000 non-league football fans to this all-too-real blood was a reminder of the inherent decency of most fans and players.