5 times rugby players got far too drunk

Lions scrum-half Phillips was sacked by his former club Bayonne for allegedly turning up drunk to a video analysis session in 2013. This incident came two years after he was involved in a late-night altercation in Cardiff city centre.

The one-time golden boy of English rugby is no stranger to controversy but things took a turn for the worse when he was arrested during pre-season with Gloucester during a tour of Jersey in 2018. Other drunken escapades ended with the playmaker receiving a ban from driving and hospitalisation following a collision with a bus in Leeds.

The former Wales and Wasps flanker was banned from driving for 15 months after taking a golf buggy onto the M4 motorway following a night of heavy drinking. He told a court he commandeered the vehicle to go and get some “munchies” from a service station before being pulled over for a breath test that he, naturally, failed.

Prominent royal and World Cup winner Tindall was kicked out of the Elite Player Squad and fined £25,000 after his part in a drunken night at dwarf-themed club night in Queenstown during the 2011 Rugby World Cup. Tindall was caught on CCTV canoodling with a woman in a second bar despite telling coach Martin Johnson he had returned alone to the team hotel after the dwarf party.

The Italian prop was suspended by his club Racing 92 in 2016 after pictures of him partying in Las Vegas surfaced on social media with Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The 34-year-old had told Racing that he could not play in their Champions Cup semi-final clash with Leicester Tigers as he had a family matter to attend to in Argentina. Naughty boy.