Cipriani is now a common sight on the London social scene © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: Danny Cipriani

Tournaments/Tours: Guinness Premiership

Teams: England | Wasps

The back pages analysed Danny Cipriani's comeback performance from injury, a remarkable six weeks ahead of schedule and perfectly timed in the week Jonny Wilkinson suffered another major orthopaedic mishap.

The front pages preferred to concentrate on Kelly Brook's fashion sense as she wrapped up against the cold to cheer on her new beau at Adams Park. The 'WAG' has officially arrived in rugby. Cipriani has an infectious confidence and he is injecting glamour into rugby in the way Kevin Pietersen did to English cricket.

He is good-looking, smart, polite and articulate. Despite the often skewed impression a paparazzi snapshot can give, Cipriani does not drink, he does not stay out until all hours. In fact, he does nothing that would jeopardise his rugby. The BBC, Sky and ITV all had film crews at Adams Park, the snappers clicked away at Brook laughing in the stands and on the pitch Cipriani showed just why England are so excited to have him back.

But contrast all that with the scenes at a London disciplinary hearing this week, where the Northampton and Ireland flanker Neil Best received an 18-week suspension after pleading guilty to gouging the eye of Cipriani's team-mate James Haskell.

From glamorous to grisly. Whatever attention Cipriani may draw to the game, can rugby hope to continue growing its appeal when it is blighted by incidents like that? The Rugby Football Union's disciplinary panel accepted the offence was not pre-meditated but concluded Best "pulled Haskell's head upwards by the eye socket" once he realised contact had been made.

Ms Brook will have had to sit through some video nasties in her time - film premieres of forgettable classics like Snatch (starring her ex-boyfriend Jason Statham) and Survival Island (starring herself) spring to mind - but even she will have felt squeamish at the graphic nature of the RFU judiciary's account. The same applies to any newcomer to rugby, attracted by its numerous and inarguable qualities and its growing profile.

My mother used to close her eyes when I packed down in the front row. If she had feared there was even a remote chance I would have an opponent's forefinger massaging my cornea I may well now be writing about tiddlywinks. It is an inescapable truth that there will be situations in a rugby match that are unpalatable to some people, particularly my mother.

That will never stop. Rugby is a physical game and the people who play it relish that competition - but it does leave rugby in a difficult Catch-22 situation. The increased coverage of all things good about the game inevitably means the microscope will also be on those negative aspects.

Rugby takes its reputation extremely seriously. Its qualities of friendship and community are numerous and attractive to increasing numbers every year, of both players and spectators alike. Examples of eye-gouging at the top level of rugby are rare - certainly rarer than they used to be - and the advent of technology means a villain never gets away with it and the suspension is stiff.

The RFU's head of discipline Judge Jeff Blackett takes the view that to make all the details of an offence open to the public acts as a strong deterrent. It is the rugby equivalent of attaching pictures of rotten lungs to a cigarette packet. Certainly Blackett showed gouging in all its horror this week.

Rugby is winning. Some still do not like professionalism. Some will not like the idea of a player's celebrity girlfriend being photographed in the stands. But rugby is winning. It still produces individuals like Cipriani, it still promotes comradeship and the statistics tell the story.

Between 2003 and 2006, mini-rugby participation increased by 28%, while kids playing the game between the ages of 13 to 18 went up 16%. The RFU are confident those numbers have continued over the last two years. The RFU are also running programmes to help the transition from non-contact to full contact rugby, including the Prop Idol initiative which was designed to give the player specialist coaching but also educate the parents on what was happening on the field.

There will still be mothers who cover their eyes on sidelines up and down the country as their little Charlie or Harry dives into a ruck. But there are also more who recognise that their kids' ambition to become the next Danny or Jonny should not scare them rigid.