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The ten coolest day jobs held by players at the 1991 Rugby World Cup

1991

A lorry driver, a chef and a flight attendant walk into a bar. There is no punchline – it’s 1991 and they’re all taking part in the Rugby World Cup.

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Thirty years ago this month, the All Blacks won the inaugural Rugby World Cup. Then, a couple of days later, they all went back to work. The same thing happened in 1991 and mostly in 1995 as well – it wasn’t until the 1999 tournament that pretty much every player to take the field would have had the same job title: ‘Rugby player.’

In 1991, to celebrate the All Blacks’ first defence of the William Webb Ellis trophy, New Zealand confectionery company Regina started selling packets of officially lisenced Rugby World Cup trading cards. Players from all competing nations were included in the set of 176. One of the best things about this set was that, where possible, they listed the player’s occupation on the back alongside his height, weight, and birthdate.

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These invaluable bits of cardboard tell us there were a handful of teachers and policemen and a lot of businessmen with vague, boring-sounding job titles. But some of the players had cool jobs. The French tight five, for example, potentially included a chef, a detective and a folk singer. They are all included in this list of the ten coolest jobs players had to take time off from to play at the 1991 Rugby World Cup.

Gary Armstrong: Lorry Driver

Keneti Sio: Flight Attendant

Kevin Higgins: Barman

 

Rory Underwood: RAF Pilot

Brendan Nasser: Dentist

Gregoire Lascube: Detective

Neil Jenkins: Scrap Metal Dealer

Michel Tachdjian: Chef

Peter Fatialofa: Piano Mover

Pascal Ondarts: Folk Singer

For unknown reasons none of the All Blacks side had their occupations listed. Still, here’s a bonus card featuring a player who never played a test and didn’t actually end up getting selected in the 1991 Rugby World Cup squad…

Warren Gatland: Future Lions Coach

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J
JW 1 hour ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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