Rugby Union's booze club culture is alive and kicking with a new survey of drinking habits revealing almost half of Kiwi players binge drink and 54% admit to drinking two or three times a week.
The Auckland survey for the the Alcohol Advisory Council (Alac) found 40% of players admit to having 10 or more drinks in one sitting, and 10% drink four times or more a week. Only 8% of rugby players never drink.
The findings follow a recent spate of off-field drunken incidents involving rugby players.
Last month alcohol was a key factor in Tongan player Sione Tuita's assault conviction after he punched a woman who had rejected his advances at a Timaru nightclub.
And Rugby Southland has been forced to ban representative players from drinking after its sevens team was dogged by allegations last month of drunken behaviour during a Queenstown tournament.
New Zealand Rugby Union deputy chief executive Steve Tew did not want to comment until he'd seen the report, but said it was "unhelpful" to isolate rugby in such a survey.
Alac acting chief executive Paula Snowden said the survey results were unsurprising. "Our information suggests it's indicative of sport and clubroom culture across the board," said Snowden, who believes increased brewery sponsorship has contributed to the problem.
"The impact of alcohol on the culture of the club is much stronger than it was. What does that tell children about the role of alcohol in their lives? You score a try under the Tui goalpost every Saturday and when you're old enough you can stand at the Tui bar and drink."
She said it was a difficult situation because sports clubs were reliant on the liquor industry to survive, "from sponsored sports gear to the money a club makes from bar sales".
"Sport in New Zealand would fall over without (the beer) sponsorship that goes into the local community at the moment."
But rugby clubs deny sponsorship is the problem.
"We certainly don't believe beer sponsorship is a saturation issue," said Tew.
"The two breweries (Lion and DB) are huge supporters of sport and other activities. I think it would it be a little selective to just consider rugby in that debate."
Lion New Zealand's sponsorship director Graham Seatter said Lion did not target rugby clubrooms in particular. "Our business is to make our products available and promote them, but we never encourage people to drink beyond safe levels.
"If they do, all they do is bring us and their club into disrepute and we'd rather that didn't happen."
He said liquor licences, which any clubroom bar needed, required responsible practices and made it llegal to serve intoxicated persons.
But Snowden said clubrooms often flouted the rules, which needed further enforcing, and the public needed to voice objections to drunken punters. "Kiwis aren't like that, but we need to demand it."
The Alac survey, which questioned 156 rugby union players aged 17-56, was part of a wider report commissioned by Alac looking at drinking culture in rugbyunion, rugbyleague, touch rugby and surfing.
Co-ordinated by Auckland University's Injury Prevention Research Centre (IPRC), the report showed rugby players' alcohol consumption increased considerably at weekends.
Massey University is holding a sport and alcohol conference next February which aims to tackle the issues. Conference organiser and Black Ferns captain Dr Farah Palmer said youths were often introduced to drinking through sports clubs.
She said it was acknowledged as a problem, but there had been little discussion about it.
"It's timely that we're having this because people are ready to talk," said Palmer.
IPRC director Dr Sara Bennett said Saturday night drinking was perceived as a reward for working and training hard all week.
Many respondents reported that drinking began in club rooms, and then progressed to bars and other venues. End of season or end of tournament functions corresponded with increased drinking, she said.
Snowden said while binge drinking was not exclusive to rugby players it was a symptom of New Zealand society.
"It's not premier players so much, it's their supporters. They have no reason not to drink."
