Homer’s odyssey was a PR disaster

RUGBY’S authorities, such as they are, should be throwing the book at the seven-a-siders from England and Argentina who dragged their sport through the mire during the now infamous World Series stand-off in France.

A hefty tome by Tolstoy or Proust would best fit the bill, given that Will Homer spent so long running down the clock behind the South American goal-line, he could have read War and Peace from cover to cover and still had time for a multipage paragraph of “A la recherche du temps perdu”.

Can you imagine the fuss had the boot (or, rather, the bedroom slipper) been on the other foot? If Canada, the victims of this pathetic stunt, had conspired with the Argentines to deny England a place in the quarter-finals, the row would have lasted longer than Partygate.

There is precious little room for values in today’s rugby, which increasingly takes its cue from Westminster. Homer’s refusal to restart the game by touching down for a try, along with his opponents’ knowing reluctance to hurry him along, was considered by pragmatists to have been a clever qualifying tactic rather than an assault on sporting ethics.

But this columnist, for one, would have punched the air in joy had both sides been lobbed out of the tournament, or banned from the next one, or deducted World Series points.

Sevens has enough problems without asphyxiating itself in its own stink. It barely has a profile, yet the paying public in Toulouse were royally fleeced.

If Homer wants to earn his money standing still, he should take up static street performance. As for England Rugby, they “declined to comment”, according to the BBC. How brave of them.

The Twickenham types may think there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but they really shouldn’t bet on it.