Judging by the Herald on Sunday's bulging mailbag, it's apparent the act of thuggery that saw Richie McCaw strangled by a Hurricanes player has caused outrage.

Rugby is no stranger to acts of violence. Over the years fans have seen players punch, kick, headbutt, eye-gouge, bite, stamp and grab the family jewels. But throttling? That's a new one.

So we thought (it's Easter and we didn't have much else to do) we would compile a Top 10 of dastardly acts to see how the incident at the Cake Tin would compare with this hall of shame.

We leave it to you, to make your minds up.

1: The punch felt around the world
England v Argentina, 1990

Frederico Mendez, just 18 and still at school, for reasons best known to himself, opted to use a break in play to casually wander over to English lock Paul Ackford and hit him flush on the chin with an enormous haymaker.

Ackford was unconscious before he hit the ground. Mendez, perhaps because of his age and the fact it was only his second cap, was daft enough to commit his act of thuggery in full view of not only the referee but also the 70,000 fans crammed into Twickenham.

Mendez later said he meant to hit opposite prop Jeff Probyn, who he claimed had stamped on him at an earlier ruck.

Probyn was short, fat and round. Ackford was 2.02m and 118kg. You can see how Mendez confused the two.

2: Loe hits Corozza on the snozza
Australia v NZ, 1992

Tension was high in the second Bledisloe Cup test of 1992, with the Wallabies having sneaked the first test 16-15 in Sydney.

And then it all got too much for All Black prop and Herald on Sunday columnist Richard Loe.

Australian wing Paul Carozza slid in for his first of two tries that day and before he even had time to think about cracking a smile he was wondering how come his nose was spread across his face. The answer was that it had been hit by the forearm of Loe, who had dropped on Carozza just after the wing had scored.

The incident left Loe the most reviled man in Australia and Carozza famous not for being a half-useful Wallaby, but for being king-hit.

3: Here's one in your eye
 N Harbour v Wellington, 1997

The picture possibly makes this look worse than it was. The incident went undetected during the game and only came to prominence after photos showed what appeared to be Harbour's Troy Flavell viciously eye-gouging Wellington's Steve Sinkinson.