7 The Calcutta Cup - it could have saved a lot of bad blood

Scotland's John Jeffrey and England's Dean Richards took the Calcutta Cup - the trophy that these two giants of running rugby compete for - on to the streets of Edinburgh in 1988. The poor old cup suffered quite a few dings in the process.

The omens were never promising, since the pair had earlier filled the trophy with whiskey and poured it over England hooker Brian Moore's head.

Memories are said to be hazy but Richards confessed that the pair had played a game of football with the cup. There were no reports of them actually passing it to each other.

It needed about $3000 of repair work and led to Jeffrey being banned for six months by his union; Richards copped only a one-match ban.

If only English rugby had been a little stricter with Deano back then it might have saved itself an awful lot of embarrassment over the Harlequins "bloodgate" scandal.

A smashed-up trophy today, a fake blood bin disgrace tomorrow.