English rugby union took the first step in the battle to restore its tarnished reputation with the launch of a set of "Core Values".
Stakeholders act after difficult summer
English rugby union took the first step in the battle to restore its tarnished reputation with the launch of a set of "Core Values" by the Rugby Football Union, in conjunction with Premier Rugby and the players' union.
The idea is to underline all the best aspects of the game following a year in which the image of the 15-man code has taken a severe battering.
A series of high-profile scandals - including England prop Matt Stevens' confessions of cocaine use, the faking of blood injuries at Harlequins and eye-gouging in high-profile international matches - have removed rugby union from its traditional occupation of the sporting moral high ground.
Those events led to the hurried setting up of a new "Image of the Game" group - which will report back at the end of September - but the Core Values task force was formed two years ago in response to concerns that standards of behaviour both of players and spectators in the professional and amateur games were changing for the worse.
With the rapid expansion of the game has come some unwelcome developments from people the RFU said were "less aware of the game's traditions and values than they might have been."
A wide-ranging consultation exercise followed and the result was the enshrining of the five core values of teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship.
Damian Hopley, head of the players' union, said his members had a "burning ambition" to restore the reputation of the game.
Role models
"They want to be out there delivering as role models," he said. "The sport has taken some body blows but the key thing is how we react and this is an important step forward.
"There are some outstanding people in the game and it's important to not lose sight of that after a pretty horrific summer."
RFU chief executive Francis Baron said that the feedback he had received from all levels of the game was 'let's get back to underlying values.'
"What has happened in the summer is not typical in the game," he said. "The Core Values launch would have happened anyway but what happened in the summer has given it added piquancy.
"A major part of ensuring that this is taken up is the elite players. They are massive role models now and essential for embedding the core values."
