CHRIS HEWETT

It would be inaccurate to say that the Pau coach Sebastien Piqueronies’ manhandling of the Scottish referee Sam Grove-White last weekend was miles out of order. In rugby terms, it was light years beyond the pale – and your columnist writes this as one who, in his long-lost playing days, was sent off and banned for brushing shoulders with an official after a roughhouse match in the West Country.
But whatever the gravity of Piqueronies’ action, it was a long way short of the toxic bile aimed at poor Wayne Barnes by the super-courageous online warriors whose chosen method of support...