THE IRFU HAS rejected allegations that Ireland’s Rugby World Cup squad were out of control on a night out in Queenstown’s infamous “dwarf-tossing” bar.
An anonymous English star has accused a number of Irish players of behaving “much worse” than Mike Tindall and his team-mates during their ill-judged party at the town’s Altitude Bar.
However Ireland’s alleged drunken antics never made the headlines, he said, because the players had invited the media to join them on their night out.
The allegations were made public when three reviews into England’s failure in New Zealand were leaked to the Times this morning.
Tindall was fined £25,000 and dropped from the England squad two weeks ago after his late-night antics in the Queenstown bar were caught on CCTV, showing him on the arm of a mystery blonde while his team-mates partied with “dwarves.”
“Ireland had been in there [the Altitude Bar in Queenstown] and were much worse,” the anonymous player wrote, “but I think they might have taken the press with them.”
Speaking to TheScore.ie this morning, IRFU Communications Manager Karl Richardson said that it was no secret that Declan Kidney’s players had been allowed a night out in Queenstown while based there.
But he dismissed claims that they went overboard with their partying and insisted that all of the players behaved as adults.
“It was made public at the time that the guys were allowed out for a night in Queenstown and enjoyed themselves without any incident,” Richardson said.
“They’re all adults and were given permission to socialise in the town which was about two or three minutes from the team hotel.
Exactly what bars they were in I can’t say, but this was a sanctioned night out and there were no issues as far as we were concerned.
