Rugby, the union side of it anyway, likes to look down its nose at football.

A hooligan game played by gentlemen as opposed to … We’ve all heard that quote, though I prefer Oscar Wilde’s take: “Rugby is a good occasion for keeping 30 bullies far from the centre of the city.”

But Union’s “them and us” image has taken a bit of a battering over the past few weeks.

Suddenly we’ve discovered that the fellas who put on England rugby shirts are not far removed from those supposedly beastly footy types.

They go to dodgy night spots and act inappropriately; they get photographed with people that they probably shouldn’t; they say naughty things to hotel staff.

In short, pretty much ticking all the boxes we use to vilify the football national team when every World Cup comes round.

Why should we be surprised? They are all highly-rewarded sportsmen with plenty of time and money to waste. Boys will always be boys, whatever their background.

But bang goes the theory that the rugger lot belong on a higher plane than the rest. And how the top brass must hate that.

They want to enjoy the lucrative spoils of professional sport without the obsessive press interest that comes with it.

You cannot expect to have one without the other – especially when one of the leading protagonists has recently married into the royal family!

And, as we’ve seen with the footballers, tittle-tattle stories will be further fuelled if the games themselves are nothing to write home about.

Rugby union, as a spectacle, has improved no end since finally turning pro but the clubhouse culture is an inevitable casualty.

These players are no longer jobbing guys who can knock seven bells out of their local rivals on a Saturday afternoon before joining them in the bar to drink each other under the table.

They are recognisable internationals representing their country in the biggest tournament in the history of the sport.

For that, the least you can expect is an air of professionalism off the pitch to match that on it.