Alastair Hignell: Rugby will rebuild reputation for honesty and integrity

There's no doubt about it – this is the kicking season.

Not just on the pitch, where the only scores in two of the six matches in opening round of Guinness Premiership came from the boot, but also off it.

Rugby has had to suffer repeated boots to the backside throughout the summer as the Bath drugs stories jostled for column inches with the "Bloodgate " saga at Harlequins and the pundits – with some taking obvious pleasure in the exercise – weighed in with their size 12 bovver boots.

Even though appeals from the Bath players have been heard and dismissed, and even though full verdicts on both the fake blood offence and its cover-up have been delivered and accepted, there's little likelihood that the kicking will come to an end any time soon.

Blows from outside the game were only to be expected. Rugby has, in the eyes of many, been a bit too smug in the past about its values.

When rugby didn't just talk of respect – for the referee, for an opponent, for the rules, between fans – but also enacted it – no surrounding and swearing at the referee, an extra 10-metres for back-chat, genuine post-match socialising, no segregation of supporters – followers of other sports felt they were being preached at.

While the summer scandals encouraged them to illustrate just how hollow were what they saw as rugby's claims to the moral high ground, any attempts by the sport to take note and move on are portrayed as so much sweeping under the carpet.

In the eyes of its harshest critics, rugby cannot win. Perhaps it never could.

But the sport has also been beating itself up. The actions of individuals in both of the shameful summer episodes were bad enough. The suspicions they have engendered are even more wounding

At first sight, it seemed that the European Rugby Cup's disciplinary procedure was remarkably clever to impose such a disproportionate sentence on the player at the centre of the fake blood allegations.

Thereby sparking a proper investigation into, and exposure of, institutionalised cheating at Harlequins. But now that whole process has come under fire for taking so long to disclose its full verdict, for releasing it bit by bit instead of in its entirety and for not giving the men it identified as chief culprits a chance to prepare their defence.

Then there are unsubstantiated allegations too of deals being struck – between player and tribunal, and between the guilty men and their club. It just gets murkier.

And now the RFU wants the sport to inform on itself. The 13-man committee tasked with restoring trust in the game has offered anonymity and immunity to all its members able and willing to detail past malpractices.

But such is now the lack of trust both inside and outside the game that, however well-intentioned that body is, it too has come under fire.

Even though it was conceived over a year ago, its appearance now is regarded as a cosmetic and knee-jerk reaction to the summer scandals.

Even though it is composed of the great and the good from all parts of the game, its make-up is criticised as too Establishment.

Even though it promises swift and stern action, it is already pre-judged as unlikely to be thorough enough or severe enough.

And even though it feels that only by promising anonymity to informants will it get a true picture of what has been going on, it is being attacked for not wanting to make its findings public until it has completed its report.

So the kicks keep coming, in the teeth in the guts, in the unmentionables, as well as to the back-side.

And rugby, rather like a forward deliberately falling off-side at a ruck, knows it is in the wrong and knows it has to take whatever comes its way. But the sport also knows the old saying: "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger".

Present ills cannot disguise previous good health. If diagnosed correctly and treated effectively they can lead to even greater vigour.

Over the years , rugby has built up a reputation for honesty, integrity, generosity and good sportsmanship.

There is no reason why that cannot be restored. All things pass. Even kicking.