THE best form of defence, we are told, is attack. And if that's not necessarily the case during the match, it sure as hell is afterwards, especially if the clubs under fire are owned by millionaire megalomaniacs.

Placing themselves on a pedestal this week have been Cardiff FC's Sam Hammam and Gloucester Rugby Club chairman Tom Walkinshaw.

Gloucester came out with guns blazing so fiercely against Rob Andrew that we could only assume they had something to hide. To accuse Andrew of bringing the game into disrepute is rather like Hansie Cronje questioning Nelson Mandela's sense of fair play.

Andrew shoots from the hip, according to Walkinshaw, who seems to forget that he is talking about one of English rugby's most respected servants of the last 15 years, both on and off the field.

The driving force behind the Arrows motor racing team - and what a huge success they have been - has decreed that Andrew will not be allowed into Gloucester's ground until he has apologised for accusing Frenchman Olivier Azam of calling Newcastle's Tongan flanker, Epi Taione, a black bastard.

Andrew also suggested that some Gloucester fans had joined in the racism, and now they all want his blood for raising an issue which he sincerely believes rugby needs to deal with.

It is known throughout the game that Kingsholm is an intimidating place to visit because of the way the fans whip up the players. Yet when a highly respected figure dares to stand up to them their reaction is totally over the top, with the club, Azam and the supporters' club all threatening Andrew with legal action.

Andrew had no reason to disbelieve Taione, a god-fearing gentle giant with no history of violence on the field, who was also spat at and provoked into deeds which earned him a sending-off.

In this era of depressing political correctness, it is refreshing to have someone like Andrew speak his mind. There is no ranting and raving, just a reasoned response to what he perceives as an injustice.

Yet he also managed to annoy Leinster this week by saying they had pressured the referee into calling off the European Cup clash at Kingston Park last Sunday.

As Leinster ignored a European Cup official's request to stay with a view to playing the following day, it was pretty clear that they were intent only on going home.

AND so to Cardiff, where Hammam refused to accept that his arrogant touchline stroll had anything to do with inciting the crowd.

To Hammam and his former Crazy Gang cohort at Wimbledon, Cardiff manager Alan Cork, the fans were simply putting on a display of passion.

The Welsh used to be passionate about rugby, so we shouldn't be surprised that the game has gone into steep decline now that they have transferred their passions to the art of thuggery.

There are those who say rugby is full of thuggery and they can justifiably point to the sort of full-blooded punch to the jaw thrown by Cardiff's Craig Quinnell during last Saturday's match against Montferrand.

Amazingly, he got away with a yellow card for something far more violent than Alan Smith's attempt to shrug off an opponent with his elbow, which earned the Leeds player a red card at Ninian Park.

This merely underlines that it's poppycock to suggest violence on the field breeds violence among the fans.

There was no bottle throwing or pitch invasion at the rugby match because those die-hard rugby fans who still go to games in Wales generally know how to behave.

A large proportion of the Cardiff football fans, on the other hand, are clearly louts and they have provided an unwelcome reminder that hooliganism still lurks menacingly beneath the veneer of improved crowd control.

WORLD championships are cropping up in some pretty obscure places at the moment. Following the Skol event at Purfleet it's now Embassy's turn to sponsor the other world darts event at Frimley Green in Surrey.

Then there's the World Indoor Bowls Championships at Potters Leisure Centre, Hopton on Sea, which turns out to be in Norfolk. They use coloured bowls now apparently for TV purposes, further proving that nothing is sacred. At least England's former world champion Tony Allcock is still going strong at 46, easily winning his first round match against an opponent from Hong Kong.

GETTING back to the alleged racist slur referred to above, it's not really that shocking in an era when insults seem to be all part of the psychology of sport.

There's a story doing the rounds of how the burly Zimbabwean paceman Eddo Brandes once hit Glenn McGrath for six and was asked by the notoriously nasty Aussie: "Why are you so fat?"

The reply (slightly amended) was: "Because every time I make love to your wife she gives me a biscuit."