Recycling an old joke

What do you call 100 consultants lying at the bottom of the ocean?

A good start!

Okay, an (originally American) old joke and normally applied to lawyers (or more latterly bankers), but there are times when some professions surpass themselves. The recent coming together of one of society's most despised professions with the "57 old f*rts" of the RFU (© former England captain Will Carling) did have a huge potential for expensive disaster, and so it has proved.

Total Flanker reports that the collected genius of some of the nation's finest consultants has been hard at work trying to work out what rugby's "core values" are. Quite why is anyone's guess, but the practical upshot of their (no doubt very expensive) labours is that the key features of rugby union are (roll of drums please)...

• Teamwork
• Respect
• Enjoyment
• Discipline
• Sportsmanship

Like, yeah. That really sums up rugby, doesn't it? And - frankly - hockey, netball, cricket, tug-of-war and ultimate frisbee! Indeed I challenge anyone to think of any team sport that that list of words does not apply to - it even works for football (well, in theory at least).

This is all part of the RFU's latest campaign - This is Rugby - so it is a great pity that it kicks off with a meaningless series of platitudes that says that the game is exactly the same as any other sport. Hopefully the campaign will recover from this false start - could hardly do worse....