Tuquiri and Dunning must be in bed by Midnight

[Seldom]

GO main game!! How many time has Loti done this?? (had to take off my shoes to keep counting) Dunning just needs to give up, Have seen some better inform players in the ARC last weekend to replace him

[JediKnight]

A mignight curfew will be interesting for those games kicking off at 9pm.

[Jehna]

A mignight curfew will be interesting for those games kicking off at 9pm.

touche but i guess that's the price you pay. Seriously though when i first heard the reports i was just like oh ffs...what are these boys thinking? Whilst i fully acknowledge that they are grown men and we should respect that, they also need to respect the fact that they are professional rugby players who do live life in the limelight. With that comes a certain amount of sacrifice. Sadly, you can't go out til all hours of the morning and find yourself unintentionally linked to an assault without expecting the media to jump on it! They've been in this field for long enough to know this and what is more, are certainly experienced enough with off-field incidents to be able to predict that they'll get their arses kicked over this even if they didn't technically do anything wrong.

Why is it always the same damn players? You can't use the fact that they're just young guys as an excuse...the whole freaking team is young blokes who like to have a good time! Just learn when, where and for how long. I mean seriously what were they doing up at 5:30am? They'd just finished and intense 5 day boot camp! They should have been wrecked!

It just pisses me off so much, especially in Tuquiri's case because i'm so tired of everyone thinking he's a god. I mean reports such as he's being picked on because he's an ex-leaguie...no he's being picked on because he's a f*cking moron. Why do we constantly make excuses for him? Yes he's a good player but we certainly aren't short of wingers. It's time to bring these boys back to earth and force them to respect the privilege position they are in being able to earn ridiculous money to represent you country by doing something you love.

*ahem* *gets off soap box*

[Skiza]

I guess its official, Dunning's new nickname is Cinderella

[Jehna]

I guess its official, Dunning's new nickname is Cinderella

Oh man i'm so pleased about that as well Can just see him in a ball dress...fetching

[Seldom]

He could be the cheerleader in a tutu!!! Would give the opposition bloody nightmares and put the off their game

[Burgs]

Why is it always the same damn players? You can't use the fact that their just young guys as an excuse...the whole freaking team is young blokes who life to have a good time! Just learn when, where and for how long. I mean seriously what were they doing up at 5:30am? They'd just finished and intense 5 day boot camp! They should have been wrecked!

And I wouldn't call 27 "young" after several years in pro sport each either hey Jehna?
Tuqiri wants to be considered a leader with the Tahs and the Wallabies but he can't even make sensible decisions in his own life.
Big surprise yesterday to see Del come out of the woodwork in support of Lote...

[Burgs]

If there is an athlete in Australia, past or present, who has the reputation to give an opinion that I would respect it would be Perkins (or Eales )
Totally on the money for mine.

You don't deserve sympathy: Perkins

Phil Lutton
Thursday, August 16, 2007

Olympic legend Kieren Perkins says elite athletes who expose themselves to controversy don't deserve sympathy and need to "wake up" to the reality of life as a well-paid sports star.

The swimming champion believes high-profile sportsmen and women have a duty as role models - like it or not - and incidents like the one involving Wallabies Matt Dunning and Lote Tuqiri last week were sheer "stupidity".

The errant pair have been handed an embarrassing midnight curfew for the World Cup by the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) after their costly all-night drinking binge in Brisbane on Friday, which hit headlines after the pair were interviewed by police after a cab driver was badly assaulted outside of their hotel at 5.30am.

Both players were quickly cleared of any involvement but the incident incensed ARU boss John O'Neill, who was furious they put themselves in a compromising position given their list of previous indiscretions.

Perkins has long believed that the duties of elite athletes extend beyond the field of play and said the ARU played the right card by coming down hard on the Wallaby duo.

"I have to say that I don't think you have to be a rocket scientist to recognise that with everything that's been happening in the last couple of years, with the number of athletes that have been involved in extraordinarily high-profile, unsavoury incidents, that's it's probably not a good idea to go out late at night drinking in a public place," Perkins said.

"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to recognise that you might want to be a little bit circumspect and find a nice quiet place to do things with people that you know and trust and not put yourself in a compromising position."

Dunning defended his actions in a tirade as the pair walked through Sydney Airport last weekend, saying he had done nothing wrong apart from have a harmless night out.

But Perkins, a dual-Olympic gold medallist who has experienced first-hand the pressure of media and public expectation, said the incident should loom as a wake-up call and the pair should have known better.

"And that was the stupidity of what happened with Tuqiri and Dunning. They should have known better than to put themselves in a compromising position and I don't have any sympathy for them," he said.

"I think that the ARU's probably reacted the way that they should have and it's about time these guys woke up."

Perkins was playing his role of model citizen with aplomb today, launching a new bus for the Starlight Foundation at Brisbane's Mater Children's Hospital.

The bus will travel around the state to provide entertainment and support for sick children in the state's hospitals.

[Jehna]

Yay for Perkins. In the end i think every job has sacrifices no matter if you're a high profile, highly paid rugby player or a garbage collector. If you don't like the sacrifices that come with the job then quit. Simple as that. You have to take the good with the bad regardless of whether it is 'fair' or not. It's life. Get over it and stop playing the childish, defiant, stubborn defence of 'i didn't do anything wrong'...

[chook]

Well, they didn't do anything wrong. Its a damn crime to put a curfew on such free spirits.

[Darren]

In bed by midnight, up again by quarter past?

[chook]

Maybe they are insomniacs? Poor little dears.

[Burgs]

Larkham wants team-wide curfew

By Wayne Smith
August 17, 2007

SENIOR statesman Stephen Larkham called on his teammates to voluntarily abide by the midnight curfew imposed on Lote Tuqiri and Matt Dunning to ensure there is no split in the World Cup squad.

Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O'Neill on Tuesday took the unprecedented step of slapping the curfews on the two players in the aftermath of the episode that saw them partying until 5.30am in Brisbane at the end of the Wallabies' boot camp. There had been speculation that any curfew would apply to the entire squad but the ARU decided it would be unfair to punish everyone for the excesses of a few.

Larkham, however, is concerned that by restricting the curfew to just two team members, the ban had the potential to become divisive.

"You wouldn't want to alienate anyone," Larkham said yesterday. "Lote and Matt ... I don't think it's fair that we isolate them as the only ones who have to get home by 12.

"I think for the team going to the World Cup, it's not a bad idea to have something in place that the whole team abides by.

"Probably when we come together again as a team (the Wallabies assemble at Coogee on Sunday for their final camp in Australia before departing for the World Cup on Thursday) we might talk about it.

"I don't think it would hurt for the duration of the World Cup. It's not a long time out of your life. We want to get the most out of ourselves and staying out late is probably not conducive to getting good results. We don't need to be out until one, two, three o'clock in the morning."

Larkham is not the only senior player to recommend the team willingly embrace such a sacrifice as a way of honing the focus on doing well in France.

O'Neill said yesterday his intention in asking coach John Connolly, captain Stirling Mortlock and managers Phil Thomson and Chris Webb to meet high performance unit manager Pat Howard on Monday to formulate some recommendations on team behaviour at the World Cup was to give the team a democratic process to work through its own issues.

"So I'll leave it to the team to discuss Steve's recommendation," O'Neill said. "But that is a pretty mature and adult proposal from a very senior player and one of the great five-eighths of Australian rugby. If 'Bernie' wants to put that suggestion through the senior leadership group, he certainly won't get any objections from this end."

[Jess]

aww bless you Bernie. Always the kind hearted diplomat.

But bugger them! You do the crime, you do the time. No need to punish those who have been doing the right thing!

No need to be in by 12... just make sure it's not as late as 5:30am!