Is money the only thing that matters in sport these days? I don’t mean football, of course;  the Premier League sold its soul to the devil (aka Sky TV) years ago. No, I was thinking about other sports such as cricket and rugby union, specifically the latter.

On Saturday, England played rugby (a debatable term as you will know if you saw the game!) against Australia and unless you were fortunate enough to have a ticket for Twickenham you would have had to watch the game on Sky. Like many people, I don’t have Sky and so, to watch a game that I’ve loved for most of my life, I had to forsake the comfort of my own home and find a local pub. It wasn’t a great problem however and although I enjoyed a few beers and a good laugh with some friends that’s not the point.

I seem to remember reading some time ago, after the last rugby world cup probably, that the English RFU were trying to increase interest in the game and attract more followers. Well, allowing the sport to be removed from terrestrial television is not going to help that is it? Not everybody wants to watch rugby in the pub and what about those too young to drink, the future of the game? I guess raking in some extra income from Murdoch just proved a more enticing option to the guardians of the game.

Talking of money, presumably that is the only reason why England discarded their traditional white shirts to play in purple against the Aussies. It can’t have been to avoid a colour clash since white is hardly going to clash with green and gold. No, the reason quite obviously is that the RFU, once more, wanted to cash in on their asset and create some extra revenue from shirt sales. Just like football. There could be no sadder indictment.