There is, in the splendid movie of 1999, American Beauty, an exchange which rather catches the Welsh hysteria about Dan Carter's tackle.

It comes when Lester Burnham, the hero/anti-hero of the movie played by Kevin Spacey, is in the grip of a destructive midlife-crisis meltdown and tells his wife, Carolyn - a sharply drawn embodiment of the female side of the breakdown - that he has quit his job.

It is not popular news and, at dinner with their disaffected daughter Jane, Carolyn says: "Janie, your father and I were just discussing his day at work. Why don't you tell our daughter about it, honey?

Lester: "Janie, today I quit my job. I also told my boss to f*** himself and then blackmailed him for almost $60,000. Pass the asparagus."

Carolyn: "Your father seems to think this kind of behaviour is something to be proud of."

Lester: "And your mother seems to prefer I go through life like a f****** prisoner while she keeps my d*** in a mason jar under the sink."

Welsh rugby has been in a jar under the sink for too long and the enormous fuss about Carter's tackle was a particularly revealing insight into the tortured psyche of a rugby team and a rugby nation who simply haven't won against the All Blacks for too, too long.

Yes, Carter's tackle was high. Yes, it deserved a penalty and a citing - if rugby is sincere about preventing head injuries. But should that tackle have caused Carter to be sidelined? No way. It was plain as a pint of Brains SA that Carter intended no malicious damage. Nor did he cause any. The recipient of the tackle was uninjured.

The law is an ass and the brainless booing that ensued was the bleating of a rugby nation desperate to find a scapegoat for ongoing failure. Pass the asparagus.

Contrast the cacophony over Carter with the roaring silence over Jones. As in Stephen Jones, Carter's counterpart at first five, who kicked All Black halfback Brendon Leonard in the head. Leonard had to go off.

There's no way Jones intended anything malicious. It was a rash challenge. But, if rugby is serious about preventing head injuries, it demanded that Jones also be cited. And suspended for a week, just like Carter.

But there'll be no dark muttering about that in the Halfway pub in Cardiff, one of the last Welsh-speaking pubs in that too-close-to-England city. It's a great pub with, last time I was there, a clientele of generous spirit - and a fine example of the native hospitality of the Welsh.