Scotland's Scott Murray may have been a touch unlucky to have been sent off against Wales last weekend, but the most noteworthy statistic from the incident is that the second row is only the 13th player to have ever been sent off in a Five or Six Nations fixture. For the record, just one Irish man, Willie Duggan, has ever been sent off in either competition, the prop being ordered off along with Wales prop Geoff Wheel for fighting at the Cardiff Arms Park back in 1977.

The list of nationalities sent off now sees four Welsh, four French, two Italians, one Scot, one Englishman and of course, the man from Kilkenny.

GOOD ON THE PITCH, BETTER OFF IT

An interesting start to the Super 14 last weekend, both on and off the field. The first point of note was the line-out statistics from all seven opening round matches which showed that not one throw from the aggregate of 224 was deemed to be crooked. T Meanwhile off the "eld in Brisbane, the Queensland Reds lost to the Waratahs but the headlines were made by the home side's cheerleaders, who, ahem, aroused a lot of interest with their near pornographic pre-match and half-time routine.

The cheerleaders have been told to tone their act down as has Scott Fava of Western Force. The number eight turned up to training the morning after his side's first ever Super 14 game (which they lost to the Brumbies) and was subjected to a breathalyser test, such was his bedraggled state. He failed it and was sent to the bench for this weekend's game against Wellington.

Breathalyser tests the morning after rugby matches? Surely that's taking this whole professionalism lark a little too far.