In the June issue of International Rugby News, my editor Jon Edwards asked in his leader whether rugby was heading the way of Premier League football.

At the time, it was a question based on the fact that Newcastle Falcons had just jettisoned three young English players because, according to the club’s chairman, their international commitments meant that his club was suffering from their absence.

In other words, it was an admission from the club that the way forward for them was similar to that route taken by many top flight football clubs - to stop producing English players and buy foreign talent that would cost less and would not be called away for international duty for chunks of the season.

So the logic goes, if all 12 Guinness Premiership clubs were of the same mind, the supply of talent to the England side would slow to a trickle, much as it has done for their football counterparts.

It was, and still is, a valid and worrying argument.

But since that editorial was written, there have been further signs that the fundamental differences between the two sports are becoming less of a chasm.

Shortly after taking them to a Guinness Premiership final from seventh place in the league on the final day of the regular season, Leicester sacked Marcelo Loffreda, who had been in the job seven months.

It had undertones of a similar move by Chelsea football club, who, only a few days earlier, dismissed their coach, Avram Grant, after he had taken them to second in the table and ensured the race for the title had gone down to the final day, and also took them to their first ever Champions League final which, had their players had more intestinal fortitude - and one fewer Didier Drogba - they may well have won.

Both were hasty decisions to get rid of men who had performed with nothing but good grace in difficult circumstances while those around them acted less admirably.

And now we have the ‘Auckland Four’, the nameless players at the centre of a so far unsubstantiated ‘serious allegation’ involving an incident in their hotel.

Once again, it evokes memories of similar stories involving high profile English football stars who, given the glare of the media into their off-field behaviours, should have the brains to know better.

It is a widely held view - and when you see some of their post-match interviews you can see why - that many of these footballers lack exactly that - brains.

But it is an accusation that has seldom been levelled at rugby players. The spotlight shines a little less brightly on them, but it has been intensifying by the season.

It rarely throws up the kind of sordid accusations that often fall at the doors of footballers and it is a source of pride to many followers of the sport that that should be the case.

Rugby fans have long been able to look down upon football from a lofty perch when it comes to the conduct of the men they watch week after week belt seven shades out of each other on the field but share a beer and a handshake after the game.

We are yet to learn whether the unofficial complaint made in relation to the unnamed four England players will gather any credence, but in the eyes of many a rugby supporter, the fact that it has given reason to draw yet another comparison to football will have done enough damage already.