Kosh wrote:No they aren't. That might have been the case 20 years ago, but the game has moved on. RL players are now well-paid professional sportsmen and need to start acting like it.
People seem to forget, 20 years ago players had a full time job, played the game because of a genuine love for the clubs and the sport, yes they went out drinking, but they also had to do a PROPER job during the day, usually that meant staying completely sober a lot of the week and then relaxing on a weekend, rugby was just a part of their social life.
People need to ask themselves this, how many people do you know who get paid in excess of £50k a year, and of those people you know that do, how many make massive sacrifices in order to command that wage, be it living away during the week, communiting huge distances, saddling themsleves with debt for their education.
Professional RL players, like a lot of professional sportspeople, are in an INCREDIBLY privilegded (sp?) position, if they can't even bin smoking for a few hours, just to give the right impression, then they are abusing that position.