Daily Mail

R4 host: Rugby is thuggery... but footballer­s are gentlemen

- By Alisha Rouse Showbusine­ss Correspond­ent

IT USED to be said that rugby was a game for hooligans played by gentlemen, and football was a game for gentlemen played by hooligans.

But one prominent rugby fan claims modern players have become vulgar, and are more likely to bite, punch and gouge their opponents eyes, while modern footballer­s are squeaky-clean role models.

Justin Webb, 57, presenter of the Today programme on Radio 4, told Radio Times he feared that rugby was becoming ‘the new boxing’, adding: ‘The England football team and their manager seem nicer than the England rugby folk.’

He said rugby stars were over-muscled monsters, adding: ‘Footballer­s... look like any fit young man – rugby players increasing­ly look like another species.’ He added: ‘The World Cup football team captain Harry Kane is a clean-living, role-model sort of fellow. Dylan Hartley, the rugby captain, has been cited for biting, punching, eye-gouging, and abusing a referee.

‘Whereas England’s footballer­s seemed so cheery on their Russian World Cup capers, the rugby players made a pig’s ear of a South African tour and ended up fighting with their own fans.’

Kane has never been sent off playing for England or his team, Tottenham, does not drink and avoids nightclubs. Hartley has been banned for 60 weeks in his career.

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