Former All Blacks manager Andrew Martin on Wednesday claimed New Zealand rugby’s binge-drinking culture threatens to undermine the national team’s physical conditioning.
Martin, a former colonel with the Special Air Services, said he was astounded by the amount of drinking among the All Blacks when he was the team’s manager.
”I couldn’t come to grips with the fact that we were spending tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars, preparing this group of athletes … yet at the same time we had people undoing an awful lot of good work … by this quite strong thread of alcohol misuse,” he told a conference on alcohol and sport.
Martin was sacked as All Blacks manager in 2002 because of differences with coach John Mitchell.
He said Mitchell had encouraged drinking as a bonding exercise, unlike his predecessors John Hart and Wayne Smith.
Martin said the All Blacks drinking culture will be hard to change as it reflects wider attitudes in the New Zealand community.
”The ability to get pissed and fall down is regarded as rite of passage both in New Zealand and Australia,” he said.
But Martin pointed to improvements under the current All Blacks coach Graham Henry, saying players are now prepared to stop drinking after a few beers following a match and there is a new emphasis on holding family-oriented social events. — Sapa-AFP