Gregor Paul: Pointing a finger at thugs

Schalk Burger is yellow-carded in the second test between South Africa and the British and Irish Lions. Photo / Getty Images

It always used to be to be the All Blacks - they were dirty men of world rugby. Not as dirty as France, the perennial mongers of filth, but dirty enough.

It was all part of the package in the amateur days - a stray boot here, a sly punch there and the odd finger in the eye. It sharpened the edge the All Blacks carried.

There were athletes and ball players throughout the team and then hard nuts like Richard Loe; uncompromising types who would do what they felt had to be done.

The preferred parlance is to call them enforcers - an old school euphemism if ever there was one; effective code for dirty bastard.

But times have changed. The game has been cleaned up in the professional age, or at least in New Zealand.

Not so in the rest of the world, particularly Northern Hemisphere rugby, which is in the midst of an appalling epidemic of off-the-ball violence.

The act of choice is eye-gouging which has been frighteningly common in 2009.

It seems to be happening almost every week - the latest being a nasty double attack by Julien Dupuy and David Atoub of Stade Francais on Ulster's Stephen Ferris. The video evidence was damning.

As it was when Schalk Burger gouged Luke Fitzgerald in the opening minute of the second test between the British Lions and Springboks in June. As it was when Italian No 8 Sergio Parisse gouged Isaac Ross a few hours before Burger's indiscretion.

If Alan Quinlan had been on tour with the Lions, then the tourists might have taken their revenge on Burger. But the Irish flanker didn't make the trip after being selected because he gouged Leinster's Leo Cullen in the Heineken Cup.

Rotorua-born Dylan Hartley missed much of the season after being found guilty of eye-gouging while playing for Northampton and one naughty Frenchman can count himself lucky that there was no supporting video footage to support All Black claims Tony Woodcock was "facialled" in Marseilles.

Woodcock's face told the story - there were scratches around his eyes and mouth while kicking coach Mick Byrne, on the sideline when it happened, knows what he saw, which is why he intervened to restrain the French player before there was too much damage inflicted.

But while digits are being poked into eye sockets across Europe and in South Africa, New Zealand remains a comparatively trouble-free environment.

Random acts of violence, especially gouging, have virtually been eradicated. There was Troy Flavell's stomping of Greg Smith in 2003 which left the Chiefs hooker with claret pouring from his head and months of headaches.

Ali Williams was a little clumsy in 2005 when his boot made contact with Richie McCaw's head in a Blues versus Crusaders game but that has been about it. New Zealand players just don't do cheap shots any more. They don't grab testicles, gouge eyes and it is rare indeed for heads to be stomped on.

Why it's so clean here and not in Europe is puzzling. The penalties for those found guilty are just as punitive there as they are here.

The only theory that stacks up is that New Zealand has done a better job at drumming into its players the importance of discipline. The best players in this country, most players in this country in fact, don't lose the plot.

There is no glorification of violent acts. If someone gouges, bites, or indulges in any other nasty staff, they are ostracised by their peers.

There is zero tolerance these days of cheap shots and players know their career may end if they carry a reputation as a thug; as the type of bloke who could jab his fingers in someone's eyes.

It's a different story elsewhere. The players seem happy to do the time for the crime. An indiscretion doesn't stall a career or even threaten it.

Parisse was back playing in a jiffy after gouging Ross. He was the class act in Milan, earning a rave review from All Black coach Graham Henry - his gouging long forgotten.

Burger will captain the Stormers in the Super 14. Hartley is England's first choice hooker and Quinlan still a legend in Munster.

The deterrent is not enough over there.

The stakes need to be raised and New Zealand, as hard as it is to believe, held up as the example to be followed.