(Part 1)
When Neil Back pulled the ball back into his own scrum from the hand of the hapless Peter Stringer in a crucial European Cup final moment, his name was either mud or great, depending on your viewpoint.
“We’ve come to think of deceit as part of the competitive spirit, so that if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.”
– Phil Taylor, CNNSI.com
1 — He who casts the first stone
Before becoming wound up by a side that cheats, be prepared to have a long hard look at your own game. This is the most difficult medicine of all, not only to administer, but to admit in the first place.
Cheating comes in such varying degrees of “acceptability” that what seems a fair part of your game, might be perceived as the worst sort of play by another.
2 — Don’t get involved in the same game
If a side is cheating, it makes matters worse by indulging in cheating yourself. “He’s doing it so why can’t I” is the sort of excuse we might have heard from a naughty child, but however patronising this comment may seem, you are letting yourself become drawn in. The cynic might say that if you haven’t trained to cheat, you will probably be caught out anyway – the other side will simply continue to get away with it.
