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An easy question for you: what do Ireland's Neil Best and Alan Quinlan, England's Dylan Hartley and Romania's Marius Tincu all have in common?

For those struggling for the answer - very few I'd imagine - let's add the names of Italy's Sergio Parisse and South Africa's Schalk Burger to make it even more obvious.

The answer, if you need reminding, is that they have all been banned for eye-gouging - the most heinous of rugby crimes - in recent seasons.

It might be because the Burger incident occurred last weekend in one of rugby's epic matches, and that the controversy lingered due to the ridiculous post-match comments of his coach Peter de Villiers, but OT has a sense that gouging is on the increase.

Other incidences include the muddled accusations from the Ospreys earlier this season when they claimed their players were victims of gouging in their match with Leicester.

A few years ago, Brian O'Driscoll complained in his book that he was gouged by an Argentina player, only for the Ireland skipper to then be accused by Gavin Henson of a performing a similar act on the Wales centre.

A little research on the subject and it is easy to find other high-profile cases of gouging in recent rugby history. Oliver Azam, Mauro Bergamasco and Seru Rabeni can also be added the list of offenders.

So has eye-gouging become more prevalent in the modern game or has it just become more difficult for perpetrators to get away with it due to the media coverage?

Has the intensity and pressure to get the slightest advantage in the professional game forced more players into such underhand behaviour, or have the incidences that do occur just been picked up by the cameras and highlighted in the press?

In France, where eye-gouging seems to have been part of the win-at-home-at-all-costs culture, they call it 'La Fourchette', which in direct translation means 'the fork'.

In his excellent biography 'Rugby Mercenary', lock John Daniel describes how in 15 years of New Zealand rugby he was gouged twice, but lost count of the number of times it happened in his first few months playing top-tier rugby in France.

According to Daniel, La Fourchette was an accepted "speciality" in French rugby and he openly admits to being guilty of the same infringement when he realised its impact, along with the fact it was pretty much expected of him.

But while gouging might have been an accepted part of French rugby culture - which in the past had a distinctly violent edge to it - it is not something that was especially commonplace in other rugby nations.

Yes it happened, but the recent rash of suspensions indicates that it could be on the rise.

To a man, every player, coach and official involved in rugby agrees that there is no place for gouging in the sport, and yet it continues.

Which suggests that the penalties are not fitting the crime: eight weeks, as Burger received, for an act that could very easily have affected Luke Fitzgerald's eyesight seems somewhat disproportionate.

Maybe it is time the authorities took a tougher stance on gougers, with Hartley's 26-weeks being the minimum for such an offense.

A football blog on this website earlier this week accused rugby of losing the moral high-ground when it came to on-field behaviour, and after a season blighted by gouging it is hard to disagree.

Terence O'Rorke / Eurosport