I'm back...

Powering into the new season...

It's been a while since I've blogged and good while since the end of last season. 

I'd like to say I've spent the summer months doing something worthwhile, like trekking through Borneo and helping to set up a Orangutan sanctuary. However that would be a lie.  Instead I've spent the off season gallivanting around East Yorkshire and watching Leeds Rhinos get ritually humiliated in the Challenge Cup Final.  Oh, and seeing my fantasy football team plummet to the bottom of my office mini-league after the first three weeks...

Well never fear.  The brand spanking new Aviva Premiership starts this weekend and I couldn't be more excited.

Picking up where they left off last season, my beloved Leeds Carnegie play Bath at Headingley this Sunday.  The fact that Leeds have failed to win one of their pre-season fixtures is not a massive issue.  I mean, they played against the might of teams like the Ospreys, Ulster, Agen, Doncaster....  Let's gloss over that.

I'll get back on the prediction horse later this week and tomorrow I will analyse each Aviva Premiership teams' chances for this season in one sentence.  I am nothing if not concise.

T minus two days 'til it all kicks off.  Happy days.

What's the Difference between Rugby and Facebook?

The answer is that poking is fun on Facebook but not in a game of rugby.

Yes Julien Dupuy and David Attoub of Stade Francais, I am talking to you.

Poor Stephen Ferris of Ulster was singled out for a disgusting spot of eye-gouging by this dispicable duo during the Ulster vs Stade Francais Heineken Cup Round 3 game, and the pair will now face a disciplinary hearing this Thursday.

Dupuy and Attoub released a joint statement, which says:
"..We apologise to the players and the Ulster club. Our actions were neither premeditated nor intentional.

"We also want to apologise to our club, players and staff for the negative image we've created."

So your actions weren't premeditated eh?  Let's look at the evidence.

First up, scrum-half Julien Dupuy:

"The pictures aren't really in my favour but I really didn't mean to put my fingers in his eyes," Dupuy told a French radio station. "I don't think I'm a dirty player."

Riiight.

Next up, David Attoub:

Yep, I can see some definite finger to eye contact in both cases.

So what should the punishment be for this pair of pokers?

Schalk Burger got off lightly with an eight week ban for poking his finger right into the eye socket of Lions winger Luke Fitzgerald this summer.  Then a couple of months ago, Shane Jennings was banned for twelve weeks after "making contact with the eye area of Nick Kennedy", even though the disciplinary panel said it was on the "lower end of the scale of seriousness for this type of offence."

So what options do the disciplinary panel have?  Well with the Shane Jennings case as a precedent I'd say Dupuy and Attoub are both looking down the barrel of a minimum 3 month ban if they are found guilty of eye-gouging, but the panel can dish out a ban of up to three years if they see fit.

I'm not saying that Dupuy and Attoub should be made examples of, but surely the only way to deter players from indulging in this disgusting and dangerous tactic which has no place in the game of rugby is to start handing out bans of 6 - 12 months or more.

I will be keeping my eye on this story...