When it comes to the sudden lift in fees for registration and insurance of rugby players, there are so many points ... and so little time. So, as the bishop said to the actress, we're going to have to be quick.

When it comes to ideal sporting models, I contend that for the last 100 years or so, the best administered football code in Australia has been Aussie rules. Their steering star has been to focus on making the base of their sporting pyramid as large as possible, in the belief that a high peak will be the natural result. And they've been proved right. AFL has always poured huge resources into expanding its playing ranks from the juniors on up, on the rightful reckoning that playing fans always become paying fans. (Plus, of course, they also put something in the water that makes Aussie rules fans completely gaga for the game ... but I digress.)

Life's good at the top: The Wallabies get $14,000 a game - win, lose or draw. Credit:Getty Images

I also contend that, of the football codes, rugby union is nevertheless the one best structurally equipped to expand that base if it plays that long game and goes down that path. Consider ... Innate athleticism in fairly svelte form is a prerequisite to prosper at Aussie rules. A certain brutal toughness in a sturdy frame is required for rugby league. You have to have foot dexterity and speed to go well at soccer. But one of rugby's key selling points is its non-exclusivity. So, you're fat and slow, with no ball skills to speak of, and you'd love nothing better than to wear your IQ on your back? You can be a prop! Tall, in it for the team, with skills across the board? Into the engine room for you as a lock. Total self-obsessed dickheads – apart from you I mean, Noddy – may apply to be five-eighths, while all you blokes built like thermometers without a friend to bless yourselves with are out on the wing. If you're great, you're in the rep teams. If you're hopeless, we want you in the oh-so-proud Fighting Fifths or Struggling Sixths, or the school D, E and F teams. Very young? You're in the juniors. Very old? In the Golden Oldies. Gays with everyone, but one of the gay rugby teams if you like. In a wheelchair, then "murderball", aka wheelchair rugby, is for you. While women's rugby is taking off around the globe and is the fastest-growing sport in the US, for starters.

All put together it means that sane governance for rugby union is to take the long-term view. In order to grow that base it must do all in its power to keep barriers to playing as low as possible, employ development officers to spread the word, empower volunteers to organise and expose as many people as possible to the joys of the game, ideally via free-to-air television.