Hey brother! The game is on, do you mind?

Wing nut, gibberer and flip are words many Australians would use to describe the young man whose drunken behavior in a Beijing bar last Saturday night did his country a disservice.

Having gathered with friends to watch Australia play England in the quarterfinal of the Rugby World Cup, I was looking forward to enjoying some homegrown camaraderie amid the millions of Beijing folk completely oblivious to the "Game they play in heaven".

Also, I was savoring the opportunity of watching former teammates of mine advance to the final eight of rugby's quadrennial showpiece.

Instead I was confronted by the ugly reality of excessive alcohol consumption the minute my compatriot stumbled into my view.

Leaning invasively across the table occupied by some Americans in an adjacent booth, this young wretch rudely inquired about their origins with all the courtesy of a fox sniffing a rabbit warren.

"Where are youse from," he bellowed in parochial voice as if he were on the grassed hill of the Sydney Cricket Ground in high summer back in the days when a mouse was still only a furry rodent.

"Oh youse are nothing," he continued to dribble when he was disappointed to learn he had failed to sniff out an Englishman to bait for the duration of the match.

Standing at the end of our table and looking on with pride as 15 young highly reputable young Australians of superb athleticism belted out my country's national anthem - Advance Australia Fair - I was next in the blurry crosshairs of this inebriated buffoon.

"Are you English," he scowled while obscuring my view of the bar's large screen television.

Temporarily losing my composure, I replied in the affirmative with the intention of putting this young man in his place.

But seeing his puffy cheeks and the glaze in his eyes, I quickly came clean and informed him that though I didn't share his manners I indeed possessed the same coat of arms on my passport.

After some incoherent diatribe about his travels to China's ancient capital for work on a motion film which hadn't been written or, as far as I could ascertain, conceived yet, I decided the time had come to diplomatically upbraid my fellow Australian.

"You've had way too much to drink, haven't you mate," I inquired, catching him by surprise.

"We watched you make a fool of yourself and your country for the past 15 minutes and now you've been trying to put me through the same treatment. Why don't you kindly go somewhere else."

Much to my relief, reason prevailed and the young man, probably 25 or 26, left the downstairs bar to no doubt harangue others on the second floor. But he was soon back with exactly the same questions before gesticulating rudely to everyone in the bar.

To the young man being hosted by Beijing's warm-hearted people, I remind you of something our mothers and grandmothers have all asked us at least once.

Would you act like that at home?

(China Daily 10/11/2007 page20)