Former Irish rugby manager allegedly throws a punch at Sunday Times Irish rugby correspondent in nightclub jacks. Sunday Times English rugby correspondent allegedly aims a blow at colleague in New Zealand restaurant. The latest edition of the racy monthly magazine Rugby Ireland is well worth a look, if only to discover the "top shelf" behaviour of sports journalists in their natural habitat.

But it is the letters page of the magazine that provides a most interesting observation on schools' rugby. Gerard Conway, a rugby coach and physics teacher from Moyle Park College, makes an important distinction between school rugby and youth rugby. His fears are that the two are being confused when they should be clearly separated. The substance of his argument is that the two have different agendas, one fulfilling a broad educational role, the other simply to win matches.

". . . clubs are not motivated by educational matters. It is certainly not the development of youngsters where rugby is a means to an end and not an end in itself. Schoolboy rugby is not motivated by a win at all costs mentality where trust and professional understanding is paramount. The development and safety of the boys is first in teacher's minds and preparing future club rugby players is far down the list of priorities."

His feeling are that at least one teacher must be involved in a school team in order for it to be called a school team and qualify for schools' competitions. Is there an important issue here and what impact would it have on schools' rugby?

Given the long line of rich and famous sports personalities who regularly beat up not so rich or famous spouses and girlfriends, it is hardly comforting to see that the BBC have reinstated former England and Yorkshire Test cricketer Geoffrey Boycott as a commentator for the third Cornhill Test match between England and South Africa.

Boycott was ostracised by the cricketing community after he was convicted in January by a French court of assaulting his then girlfriend, Margaret Moore, at a luxury hotel in 1996.

The BBC were one of several organisations to dispense with the services of Boycott when the assault and conviction became common knowledge. Now they've changed their mind for no particular reason, except of course that Boycott provides them with the expertise they need. That's why the BBC is called Auntie. They're a caring corporation.

Fed up hearing that the Tour de France is the third largest sports event after the World Cup and the Olympic Games? Yes? Well that's because when the Ryder Cup was on and Europe were storming the ramparts, we heard that it was the third biggest event after the World Cup and the Olympic Games. As for the European football championship, well it is, of course, also the third biggest event.

Was talking to a colleague in the office this week. He said that the Asian Games were the third biggest sports event after the World Cup and the Olympic Games, adding that for some reason we often tend to forget about the greatest concentration of people on the planet out east.

The logic follows that if you come from Gowran or Bennetsbridge you will be perfectly entitled to believe that tomorrow's game between Kilkenny and Offaly in the Leinster Senior hurling final is the third biggest event after the World Cup and Olympic Games. But which is biggest event? According to the Olympic Marketing Newsletter, the 1996 Olympics claimed an audience of 10,328 million, compared to the 1994 World Cup's 5,375 million. That, at least, seems to sort that one out.

Jason Sherlock is a natural in front of the cameras according to Coco Television, the production company who are making a new 12-episode sports magazine programme for RTE.

Jayo will front the half-hour programme along with Kathyrn Thomas and they will target 12 to 18year-olds with pacey, upbeat stories and features from around the country. Mainstream, extreme and minority sports will all be covered in segments of between six and seven minutes. The Dublin player will make his debut in early September, when his county footballing collegues, thanks to Kildare, will have plenty of time to put their feet up and watch him perform.

FIFA have been getting all shirty over managers smoking in the dug out when their team is playing. The latest manager to come under scrutiny from the governing body is Argentina's Daniel Passarella, who has chain smoked his way through every one of his side's games thus far. Former coach Cesar Menotti was also famed for puffing his way through the 1978 World Cup. FIFA are concerned about the wrong impression being given to a television audience, many of whom are impressionable children.

While football authorities baulk at the dreaded weed, they don't seem to concerned about sponsorship of entire leagues by alcohol companies, the Carling Premiership. In so far as much of the violence and mayhem created by English and German fans in France was alcohol-related, you would imagine that FIFA would have considered a more pragmatic stance. Pragmatic regarding impressionable young teenagers, that is, not the football association's bank balances.

GAA Pro Danny Lynch seems to have echoed what many people believe was a gross invasion of privacy by the Sunday World News of the World over the past two weeks. The two tabloids ran stories on the private lives of two prominent GAA footballers. Neither story was in the public interest.

"Perhaps journalists, some of whom have an unhealthy interest in the private lives of others, might look into the mirror on occasions and ask themselves if they would relish their own private lives being held up for public scrutiny," said Lynch, who knows only too well how certain journalists occasionally behave on tour.