Thats the rumour I heard. Took a swing at Tony Smith at the wedding. Probably all bunkum but still....

When Tony Smith came in, put an end to the drinking culture, stopped the infamous "Dews Fests" and generally cleaned up the squad. Some got onboard, some didnt want to.

He eventually rinsed the ones who didnt get onboard.

I've never got it. You do a job and everyone expects you to be sober when you turn up and fit for work every time. They are professional sportsmen paid good money and asked by their employer to follow a few simple rules. Having said that we had the same at U16's at our RU club. It's a competitive game Sunday morning so don't go out and spend all night drinking at a party the night before. We played a Bristol club and the entire back division had been up all night on the lash. It was embarrassing. The coaches sent out the message that if you rocked up "unfit" to play then you would be dropped for three weeks. I think it was the right message, especially at that age, to act responsibly. Adults at a junior club can do what they want - it was practically a requirement when I played to be hung over on a Saturday afternoon. But professionals? One request, don't get drunk when we ask you not to. Nothing sadder than an interview I saw with Gareth Hock moaning about the time Steve McBanana sent him and Hardaker home.
Some of the extracts from Sean Long's autobiography answered the question regarding why he never became the best half in the world and was almost always awful for GB/England. Imagine if he'd just not been p!$$ed all the time.

Yeah,, solid post there DHM.

TBF, its a bloody hard, stressfull job and somewhere along the line, you are going to need some sort of "crutch" that you are going to develop / feed either in the short or long term.

Drinking culture has been around from year dot, its everywhere and its a hard circle to come out of. I used to be in catering for years and the level of what you can only call substance abuse is rife. Thats another high pressure, results based cut throat business and thats without the public scrutiny of us fans / media / fellow professionals not even mentioning the steady increase in injuries etc

They have to have some sort of "blow out" every so often for their own well being, some channel it into different hobbies, some take advantage of the time off and some get absolutely blotto.

I like Jamie Peacocks line on drinking - 2006 tour - NO DRINKING!!! Which had a tacit understanding (unwritten of course)

Anyone who had 1 - 3 beers - off the sauce
Anyone who had 4 - 8 beers - down to 1-3

Anyone who drank over 8 down to 4-8.


Sad to say that alcohol is the easiest to legally do, but over time really degrades the body and is whisper it (is why most of the new breed take coke) not that I partake or condone.

There's a lot of downtime and boredom I imagine. You can't train all day (unless you are a swimmer) and you can only watch so many match videos. I guess you also forget the influence of "mates" as well. A lot of rugby lads come with "baggage". Especially in RL which is so geographically limited.

I don't doubt it.

We have a club run out to Ponte for a good drink every now and again and 2015 we were there after the GF and Zak and Kallum were in having a few bevvies, the amount of people around them in their group was massive.

You can only trust your judgement and sometimes its the oldest friends who take the P more as they know you've been mates longer so try it on more.

Its a hard path to walk.

On topic, I watched the Leeds v Fev CC semi from 1995. Jesus the defence was awful from both teams. However, I did hear something during the commentary about the 10 metre rule and I am pretty sure that 94/95 season was when 5 went to 10 metres, which probably explains the huge distance between the attackers and defenders at every PTB. That took some getting used to and probably explains why I remember a lot of games from that era as shoot outs.

All the more so towards the end of the season. You had the perfect storm of tired players and a firm surface with the game speeding up signficantly as a result. If you were a betting man in the early to mid 90s there came a point in the season, usually from mid March onwards, where you could just clean up going with the overs on total points.

Watched the 3 games against Bradford from 2002, 2004 & 2005

Id forgotten how good those games were when our rivalry was at its peak, really enjoyed the 2002 game it had everything.

A stark reminder of how the game has been spoiled by wrestle.

It's sort of crept up on us (wrestle that is) and is now an integral and in my opinion completely detrimental part of the game.

Players learning how to defend properly and having more structure in defence has made it a different game but not neccessarily a worse or better sport. Its just not it used to be and thats how it should be, the game should evolve.

A quick PTB puts the onus on the side with the ball to do things, well, quickly. This favours sides best at handling and best at running and is the game at its most enjoyable for me. I don't actually mind the wrestle too much but multiple tacklers just lying on involves zero skill and less entertainment.

Theres a lot of skill in the wrestling techniques players are using. We just dont appreciate it enough cos it doesnt lead to fast flowing rugby.

Personally i find the NRL too fast and teams can just roll down the field and it bores me to tears so theres a balance to be struck.

The game is just different now and in 10 years time will be different again.

When we had a quicker play the ball people complained it was too fast and there were too many 'blow out scores'. I actually think RL fans in general just like to whinge. The game is too fast, then it's too slow. We need more players in the NRL to improve the national team, we need to stop the player drain to the NRL. We need to change the structure...we need to change the structure again. We need to scrap promotion and relegation, promotion and relegation is part our sporting DNA. We need to expand the game, the expansion clubs bring nothing to game.

saints v leeds in 08. thick mud, driving rain, one out football.
what a game