A FULHAM man may find a false beard a bit of a bonus if he plans to visit Down Under soon.

Chris Cuthbertson is not a popular figure in rugby circles on the other side of the world after he played a major role in destroying an experimental rule in world rugby.

Cuthbertson is not only secretary of Hammersmith & Fulham RFC - but also chair of the RFU task group that kicked into a touch a contentious rule over collapsing the maul.

Experimental Law Variations (ELVs) is the title used for tinkering with rugby's code for the game's improvement - but Cuthbertson and his committee found that after analysing 153 matches, bringing the maul down did nothing for rugby's future.

Needless to say, Australia and New Zealand wanted to make the experiment permanent. But at the International Rugby Board's (IRB) meeting in Teddington recently, Cuthbertson spoke out against the trial - which is now history.

New Zealand chief executive Steve Tew branded the rejection as 'ridiculous', but our man at the centre of the storm begs to differ.

Cuthbertson said: "If you take away the maul, you're removing a legitimate and skilful means of advancing the ball.

"It also suggests that the bigger and heavier packs can just use their muscle to kill a move - and that hardly promotes skilful rugby."

The safety implications at junior level were also a factor in raising Oz and Kiwi hackles - but Cuthbertson knows all about the slim but significant dangers of playing the oval-ball game.

This time last year, the HRFC secretary was visiting Stuart Mangan in hospital - and looking at a man paralysed from the neck down after a freak accident playing in Hammers colours.

Cuthbertson said: "In senior rugby, collapsing the maul usually happens straight away.

"At junior level, one man who hasn't pulled out of trying to bring it down could end up with huge amounts of weight dropping on him like a brick wall."