Roger Moroney: End of test season will be relief to some

Kurtley Beale is better at kicking than texting. Photo / AP

Just when we all thought the test rugby season was done and dusted, up steps an errant Aussie and that dreadful trap called social media.

And like any breath-taking script it has been consumed by television.

Viewers, whether they know a rugby ball from a tennis ball, have watched intrigued and bemused.

I daresay some have also watched horrified.

But then this is the age of sending vicious or derogatory texts and the scuttling of someone's reputation via a social media site.

Hardly a week goes by without news of the latest on-line kerfuffle emerging somewhere.

The recent off-field happenings within Australian rugby is soapbox TV script material.

In the apparently staunchly male domain of Aussie rugby administration, a woman is drafted in to take on a management role.

That's fine, except it clearly did not get the acceptance vote from all.

Certainly not Kurtley Beale who sent a crudely illustrated and offensive text to Di Patston.

There was every likelihood he sent it to a few teammates as well.

Probably as a laugh, except he's not laughing now having been stood down from the squad and set to face a disciplinary hearing.

And Patston has quit the job and is now effectively hiding out.

So while she hides out, the Wallabies coach has to retain the public profile and has been angrily denying suggestions he had been in a relationship with Patston that went beyond managerial.

And in the past few days more potentially damaging text messaging between Beale and Patston have come to light.

It is a mess and the last thing the Aussies want at this time because, on Saturday, they face the All Blacks for the final game in the dead rubber Bledisloe Cup series in Brisbane.

The script just gets more intriguing.

Argentina stunned the Aussies and took a historic win when the two teams met a fortnight ago and, of course, the All Blacks' winning sequence was finally shut down by the Springboks.

But those results are in the background as Saturday's game approaches.

It is the off-field carry-ons which are under the spotlight.

Even the scriptwriters of Neighbours couldn't have come up with this one.

Now if all this had happened within the confines of English Premier League football then Saturday's clash would become a sideshow ground in terms of hastily composed songs for one set of fans to sing to the others.

Songs about the mess their side had found itself in ... and the sort of songs the television sound engineers at the match would have to work hard to erase from the soundtrack so as not to offend young viewers.

But the big contingent of Kiwis at Suncorp will, I'm sure, not say a word about the shambolic goings-on of late within the rival camp.

Yeah right.

And I wonder if the chaps in the front row will join in the verbal jousting.

It will only take one AB prop to ask "so where's Kurtley then?" for the whole scrum to erupt.

The other big television rugby outing is the Magpies up against visitors Northland at 7.35pm on Friday on Sky Sport 1.

The Shield is safe and that campaign is over - now it's all hands on deck to snare a place in the ITM Championship final.

• All Blacks vs Australia, Sky Sport 1, 9pm, Saturday: It's very much an "oh dear" end of the Rugby Championship for Australia as the off-field activities are much more colourful and intriguing than what they've been putting together on the playing ground. Ahh, it would never have happened if they'd kept a good Kiwi lad like Robbie Deans at the helm.

On the box

• The Real Rocky, Maori TV at 8.30pm Thursday: Charles "Chuck" Wepner was a character. A tough and uncompromising character who, it is said, was the inspiration for Sylvester Stallone's Rocky movies. He was a tough marine and an equally tough boxer when he went pro, and during a bout with Muhammad Ali in 1975 knocked him down although Ali returned and pretty well beat Wepner up big time. He now runs a liquor store in New Jersey, and if you want to see a colourful life story unfold then you probably won't see better than this.

• Bondi Vet, TV3 at 5.30pm Saturday: This is one of those modest, average, standard sort of programmes which doesn't really stand out, yet makes for entertaining viewing. And sort of feelgood viewing too because the vets at this Sydney spot better known for swimming often take in the damaged strays and native beasties who come to harm, knowing there's no pay cheque at the end of it all. Absolutely sterling folk, vets.

• The Truman Show, TV4 at 8.20pm Saturday: This is wonderfully spooky, and I daresay will strike a bit of a chord with anyone who has experienced one of those strange "is this a set-up?" moments. It's happened to me. The most recent after being posed the question who was lead singer of the Little River Band. Glenn Shorrock, I said, and remarked that John Farnham had also sung with them, and that was that. So, on the way home I put the radio on and what was playing? Yep, the Little River Band. Was someone scripting this? Here we have the entertaining tale of a insurance salesman (Jim Carrey) who comes to realise that his entire life has been a television show. All scripted. It's a fascinating film.