Richard Loe: Doing it by the book is not the way

I have a bit of a problem with rugby players who write books. I never wrote one and I never will. I believe that you should not say anything in a book that you have not already said to someone's face. What Brian O'Driscoll and Gavin Henson have done with their books is pretty offensive. It just reinforces my belief that rugby players write books to make money.

Take Henson, for example. He's a real show pony and here he is writing a book and criticising everybody. Writing a book at the end of a career is one thing - writing it before you've achieved anything is another.

But O'Driscoll is old enough and clever enough to know better. His book emphasises how some of the old rugby values have been eroded by professionalism. In the "old days", you did meet your opponents and get to know them a little and, in a few cases, well. Particularly in the front-row club. But these days, there is little or no time for that - which means that people like O'Driscoll can take pot shots from a safe distance.

We all know that he was hurt in the tackle but what happened was really just a failure in the system. I do not believe for a moment that Keven Mealamu or Tana Umaga intended to injure him. But the referee didn't see it. The touch judge might have seen it but didn't act on it. Willem Venter, the match commissioner, didn't call anyone to a hearing before he headed back to South Africa.

So that left a bit of a vacuum - which O'Driscoll is now exploiting for his book. I know something about the judicial system falling down because that's what happened to me in that famous incident where little Australian winger Paul Carozza hit my elbow with his face during a test match.

I was hugely criticised for that. Fair enough, I copped a bit of stick. But Paul and I see a bit of each other these days - we often do speaking engagements together in the build-up to Bledisloe Cup matches - and know each other pretty well now. Paul told me once that he resented all the fuss over the incident because that is what people remember him for - not his test record nor his try-scoring.

But, you see, that's the old rugby way. The incident was over, the people involved got together, had a beer and are now colleagues of sorts. I can't see O'Driscoll getting together with Tana for a beer and a joke.

I remember the furore about the Greg Cooper incident I was involved in. I really got it served up by some people in the media who said I no longer had the desire nor the ability to come back. Of course, that was a perfect way to ensure both. I was determined to prove them wrong. That's what O'Driscoll is giving the All Blacks - even more desire, even more ability.