Of all the subjects that have irritated me in recent years – apart from the hardy annual of blatant forward passes that get waved through by happy clappy refs – the extraordinary way Ireland and indeed Leinster have escaped censure at the breakdown and scrum time has topped the list.
It has always been my great caveat when otherwise heaping praise on both.

I have banged on relentlessly in this column and taken to the pulpit many times in The Rugby Paper podcast and my punch line has always been the same.
One day, a referee will get brave and start issuing a blizzard of cards, and it would ...