NICK KENNEDY has been called into the England squad, and good luck to him. Alongside Bob Casey, the late-developing 28-year-old London Irish lock has been the prince among lineout thieves in the English Premiership for four or five years, writes GERRY THORNLEY

No doubt, as Casey and other team-mates describe him, Kennedy is a top bloke and joker off the pitch as well as a fiercely competitive animal on it. But if he ever allows himself to look at the video footage of his altercation with Shane Jennings at the RDS three weeks ago, he must surely feel embarrassed.

Kennedy isn’t the first and, alas, won’t be the last to over-react or play-act after supposed contact by an opponent with his “eye area”, as the saying now goes. The eye-dive has crept into the game, prompting former Welsh number eight turned columnist and pundit Eddie Butler to wonder aloud whether false tears will now replace false blood.

Kennedy has probably never done anything like that in his career, but that he was moved to do so is entirely the product of the disciplinary climate which now prevails. For this the IRB, especially, and the various three-man disciplinary committees who have or have not adhered to the governing body’s get-tough stance on contact with the eye area, stand indicted.

The 12-week suspension which was punitively and wrongly handed out to Jennings, and then upheld on appeal, was part of the reaction to the eight-week bans imposed on Schalk Burger and Sergio Parisse for what appeared to the naked eye – so to speak – far worse cases of gouging as opposed to Jennings’ supposed crime of “making contact with the eye area”.

It was Jennings’ misfortune that his initial disciplinary hearing was held on the day the IRB were also in Dublin to discuss eye-gouging/contact with the eye area.

But the IRB should be far more ashamed of themselves than Kennedy if presented with the relevant video clips of what Burger did to Luke Fitzgerald and Jennings’ altercation with Kennedy.

Had the London Irish lock not claimed he was gouged, most likely there never would have been a citing or disciplinary hearing. Absolving himself to some degree, Kennedy provided both written and telephone evidence to clarify what had happened. As Kennedy tugged Jennings around by the head while he lay on the ground, Jennings involuntarily sought to soften his landing with the palm of his hand. Yes, Jennings’ hand came into contact with Kennedy’s eye area, but Kennedy admitted to over-reacting and acknowledged that Jennings could not have seen what he was doing.

To anyone with the remotest idea about playing the game, or indeed falling to the ground, it would appear an open and shut case. When falling, and especially being pulled to the ground, one’s natural instinct is to soften the landing by stretching out the palm of one’s hand(s). Would Jennings have been better off landing head first on Kennedy?

It’s also ironic to think that a player is now better advised to close his fist and land a good old punch instead – witness the two-week ban imposed on the Ospreys’ Jonathan Thomas for twice punching an opponent in the latest example of a WRU disciplinary hearing throwing the book at one of its own. Or not.

Again, not a peep from the IRB concerning the risible Magners League disciplinary procedures.

But, in the current climate, the ERC disciplinary committee were only concerned with the words “making contact with the eye area”. Ditto the appeal panel. In their eyes, two wrongs make a right. The stench of the Burger affair lingers on even though, shamefully, there was not a whimper from the IRB for that disciplinary panel’s failure to uphold the minimum 12-week ban.

Rugby would want to be careful here, very careful. In their desire to clean up the game, especially of gouging/making contact with the eye area, the IRB, its various tournament organisers and the disciplinary panels are making the game look dirtier than it is when in fact the game is incomparably cleaner than it was even 10 years ago.

There is also insufficient discrepancy between the two, namely gouging/making contact with the eye area. Indeed, incidents of the latter have now been treated more severely than the former. And this in a sport where the hand-off is still legal. If a player scores a try by employing the hand-off, will it now be disallowed and the try-scorer suspended?

Furthermore, let’s leave aside the dislikeable trait of patting opponents on the head after conceding a penalty or missing a drop goal. Feigning injuries, which was once a means of earning a time-out or respite for one’s team when under pressure, has become more and more commonplace, with players now waving imaginary cards at referees to have opponents sanctioned. Irish players have been up to these shenanigans too.

In seeking to clean up its act of violent conduct, and especially players raising their hands at opponents, football has given licence to cheats and divers. You see it every single weekend.

As with gouging/making contact with the eye area, there is no discrimination between a punch and a shove, either to the body or the face. When Sunderland striker Kenwyn Jones pushed West Ham’s Herita Ulunga on Saturday – one hand on his chest, the other on his chin – Ulunga (clutching his face!) couldn’t have fallen more theatrically had he been an extra taking a round in Platoon. Whereupon, West Ham’s medical staff rushed to the aid of the stricken Ulunga, before his miraculous recovery, unscathed, within minutes.

Yet there is little condemnation in football any more for actions such as Ulunga’s. “In the current climate” Smith/Jones/whomever “had to go” is the accepted parlance in the world of punditry.

Jones copped a red card and will be banned. Ulunga, who should be cited and banned, will probably escape scot free like countless others before him.

Fifa, and football, should be ashamed of such incidents. Instead, the licence to cheat will be rubberstamped.

It wouldn’t have been the first time supporters of both games will have looked on and wished the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Didier Drogba were pitched into a rugby game. Just for five minutes.

Afterwards, Sunderland manager Steve Bruce took such a view. “They need to take a leaf out of a rugby player’s book. A rugby player wouldn’t fall over like that, get an ice pack like that, for something as trivial as that. I’m embarrassed by his actions really, and would certainly be embarrassed if it was one of my players. Fair enough, he (Jones) has pushed him (Ulunga), but he goes down as if he has been poleaxed. Refs have a difficult enough job without all this carry-on which is creeping into our game, this diving, this play-acting, trying to get people sent-off.”

Hmm. Oh that Bruce may be able still to draw such a comparison in years to come.