On the other hand, maybe part of the reason Tomkins is one of the best in the world is that for all his silly antics on the field, he turns up sober for training and puts the work in. Maybe.

Why cant you have a team sport were one player is handled differently to another? Isnt this what happens when a player comes before a disciplinary after an offence on the field of play? You have to take previous misdemeanours into account when handing out punishment hence the EGP that Briers used before their semi final game. Same thing happened at Saints a few years back with the Long/Gleeson betting scandal, same offence but different punishments. That's life and Hock should have been aware that no matter what the other sheep did he should definitely have stayed at the shepherd's side as his previous was always going to be brought up.

Has his previous been brought into this by the management though? He is the only one who missed training & a medical. No-one, apart from in the media, has mentioned it.

Maybe Hock was worried what the medical may show up?

That his skull is, infact, completely empty?

How seriously are some of the players [ireally[/i taking this when they go out for drinks after an embarassing loss just a week before the tournament kicks off for real, when the coaching staff have put a drinking ban until after the aussie game?

Fair question.

I'd go with DHM's suggestion of binning the lot of them and bringing in people who are at least committed to the cause and have some sense of what it should mean to represent your country in a World Cup.

Mmm, I like winning flavour.

I bet Gareth Hock doesn't even like cake. It's a scandal.

Me, I love cake.

What were we talking about?

Exactly. On the relatively successful '92 tour the players imposed their own alcohol ban. Mind you, I did see them all on the p[ii[/iss around Sydney harbour shortly after announcing this.

What people seem to forget is 18 players did impose their own alcohol ban. 6 went for a few drinks and by all accounts 5 of them kept it light and were responsible enough to not get leathered. They got home, got to bed, got to camp, got to training.

1 idiot didn’t.

I have no problem with a player having a beer or two a week before the game. There is an obvious problem with 1 player who couldn’t keep it together. But its unfair to focus on him and think of him as representative of the squad when he is an isolated incident.

On a more positive note, there's a superb article by Jamie Peacock on the BBC website: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/24475643

On a more positive note, there's a superb article by Jamie Peacock on the BBC website: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/24475643

Spot on.We are talking about a 30 year bloke not being able to get himself out of bed at a civilised time in the morning FFS!

I do have a problem with people going out for a drink in the run up to a big tournament.
The affects of alcohol on training up to 48 hours after consumption are well known and documented. Although not rocket scientists the players should know this too. The medical staff will be able to explain to them if needed. In order to make an impact every player needs to be at 100%. Hocks refusal to understand that its just missing a couple of 10 minute sessions shows he does not have the right mental attitude to be involved at the tournament. THere are thousands of blokes who would swap position with him, and would give up alcohol for a few weeks in order to achieve something great. Unfortunately, not for the first time, Hock has shown he can't handle temptation and focus on the long term goal

I think that would be fine if there wasn't (as seems to have been the case) a specific instruction from the management about not drinking until after Saturday. I have no problem with the odd beer (I don't think isolating people in a confined camp, however luxurious, a la England Soccerball in 2010 is a great idea) during a tournament, but they were specifically told not to, and went and did it anyway. Which disrespects the coaching staff and the rest of the squad who managed to do as they were told.