I see your point. It reads to me as a description of him as a "Great" in the pantheon of NZ RL internationals. Looked at in other ways, he is a great sportsman.

Just for the record, I assume he boxes for fun, because while he is OK and makes use of his outrageous physical gifts against lower opponents, he is never in a million years going to be a world class boxer. So when he has "excelled" at 3 sports, keep in mind that his "excelling" in one of them is several levels below the other two. Even our very limited crop in this country have 3 or 4 heavyweights he would stand very little chance against. And I'm not even counting Anthony Joshua yet.

Rebecca Addlington didn't drink for the two years prior to the London Olympics.

Looks like this is Steve M's stance and rightly so....it me the most important aspect in a coach and player relatioship is respect....if you show dis-respect to the team and coach like they did going for a drink then you should expect to deal with the consequences.

While they where in south Africa his room mate was sam Tomkins, I don't know if they will have kept the same once back in this country though???

While Usain Bolt loaded up on KFCs. Not a recommended training technique.

Fact is, we don't know what Graham, Hardaker and McIlorum did, because the England RL set-up have refused to tell anyone, so we can't really judge whether the disciplinary sanctions were harsh, fair or whatever. There's an element of contempt there towards the people who have paid to see the game.

As long as you're comparing sports, if a top footballer or cricketer was left out of an important match, I'm pretty sure the FA or the MCC would be very quickly forced to say why.

Love him or hate him, Hock was our one forward with the ' x-factor ' who might have really scared the Aussies, with all due respect Farrell and Mossop just don't do it for me. Hopefully the Burgess trio will all have big games

Of them all Jammer was the only one you would consider 'nailed on' for his spot in the game. Lets hope they all heed the warning and front up against the convicts. I hope George and Tom break a jaw each and Burgess snr gets a hat-trick created by Sir Kev.

I hope not.

I'm not a big fan of McNamara but the way some on the VT are trying to put the blame on him for this is quite pathetic.
On the one hand they go on about respect and say he can't have the respect of his team if they didn't follow his booze ban.....yet saying he's wrong for dropping Graham for breaking it. Their main point being (in almost Hock style) "yeah but he's our BEST prop" as if players should be disciplined differently based on talent.

The sad thing about this whole sorry affair, is certain so called professional sportsmen can't go a short while, without the need for alcohol.

didn't mean their own jaws. I was thinking more Thurston and Smith.

I got that.

It will be interesting with the Burgess rough house style of play but that's nothing new for England internationals ( that's not a dig I'm a fan of a bit of old fashioned contact ) I hope they rile Paul Gallen into doing something stupid.
The Australian sides have the arrogance and the reputation to get away with a lot mind.

They also back their indiscretions up with defensive spells , I'm pretty sure the Top NRL teams give away the most penalties and back it up with their defence ( I read that somewhere , probably an article on Melbournes wrestling ).

I'm sure there will be plenty of fireworks , if it gets out of hand then you'd be looking at replacing your captain I guess , controlled aggression and all of that.

I've got me Beer in the Fridge and some Cold Pizza to set it off with , can't wait , I hope England smashes Australia !!!