IN a world where sport is increasingly treated like a business, it’s easy to forget that it is played by human beings.

If it suits our club, or our owner, we as supporters know that a player in a team sport is nothing short of a commodity to be traded or sold when the time is right for the club, or simply, the player in question.

Loyalty, what about it? That’s for families and friends. Sport is about winning. Justin Edinburgh is a Judas for being a big success at Newport County and leaving for a better job but Terry Butcher gets called no names for failing and getting sacked. It’s the world we inhabit.

However, if you want an example where the madness of sport, the desire to look after your own house and damn doing what is right, is alive and well, we have it in regard to Taulupe Faletau, who has been treated appallingly by the Welsh Rugby Union in the past seven days.

The Newport Gwent Dragons ace has a season left on his contract and after staying with the region for longer than many of us would have assumed, is now looking for a fresh challenge.

Not for Taulupe the desire to make a dash across the channel tunnel, he’s not seeking the big bucks in France, like so many of his contemporaries.

A genuine ‘home boy’ who loves to be close to the embrace of his family and friends, Faletau is merely looking to move some 35 miles down the road to join Bath and have a crack at the Aviva Premiership, a better standard of competition than the Guinness Pro 12.

You would assume that it then becomes an issue for the Dragons, but of course, you’d be wrong. The Dragons who absolutely ARE looking out for Faletau – while also trying to do right in a business sense – are sympathetic to his desire and want to accommodate his wishes, especially as it is the difference between them receiving a hefty fee for the player, whose contract expires at the end of the season.

I’ve never tried to pretend to be a rugby expert but it’s not too tough to keep up so far is it? Bath want to buy Faletau. The Dragons are reluctantly willing to sell to do what is right by the player and the region. All parties are in agreement.

All parties except the Welsh Rugby Union, because they say no. Warren Gatland has even written to the Dragons to tell them no. Because the WRU seemingly couldn’t care less about Faletau’s future happiness or career prospects; only his availability for Wales in the short term.

I understand the arguments. The WRU want to limit the number of players playing abroad, lest they become unavailable for international playing or training dates, they need to finally show a firm hand.

So even though the regions can’t offer the big bucks, the WRU have attempted to stymie the flow out of the country by establishing dual contracts. None of it is rocket science to understand.

But in failing to secure Faletau to a dual contract, the WRU missed their window to dictate his future, or so you would assume.

Not in rugby, not in Wales. The WRU have cost the Dragons £100,000 or more and Faletau in essence, a year of his career.

He looked like a burst balloon at the Scarlets on Friday night and who can blame him? Imagine if Chris Coleman had tried to force Gareth Bale to stay at Tottenham? Demanded he couldn’t go and play for Real Madrid.

And in that fantasy scenario, imagine also that 11 of Bale’s contemporaries were already playing outside the confines of the Premier League. Because there are already 11 Welshman from the recent World Cup squad plying their trade outside of the regions, yet only Faletau has his wings clipped. Top level sporting careers are generally short, a fact that can be especially true in an arena as unrelenting and punishing as a rugby one can be. One big hit, one concussion, one twist or turn that doesn’t quite land, it can all be over. The players know that each and every time they cross the whitewash.

And yet, at the age of 24, entering his prime years, a dedicated servant to region and country is being forced to stay at a place he doesn’t want to be, for nothing more than self-serving politics.

Despite not chasing money, or even a big move – he wants to play rugby 35 miles down the road to play at the best level possible, which would help his development (and therefore Wales by the way) – Faletau must now sit and wait as a bunch of bureaucrats and self-interested observers decide his future.

The whole matter absolutely stinks and while the Dragons are utterly blameless, the true victim is Faletau. He’s given his all for club and country, yet he’s not being offered the same opportunities nearly every other sporting star, namely, the ability to test yourself at the highest level possible.

He’s acted impeccably throughout the whole thing and he’s been let down really, really badly and is now left in limbo.

It might be a decision about what is best for business as far as the WRU are concerned, but there are truly no winners here.