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by Colin Spiro 02
October 2008
We all know that bosses check out their
employees’ habits on social networking sights such as My
Space and Facebook, but in a true reflection of the times we
live in it seems a bad rap on website sensation Wikipedia
could also cost you an international sporting career.
The player in question here is Bayonne’s
Australian inside centre Craig Gower, the former NRL star
who converted to union when he made the switch to Top 14
last season. His exploits caught the eye of Italy’s national
coach Nick Mallett – Gower is eligible to play for the
Azzurri through an Italian grandfather – but it seems so did
his ‘bad boy’ image which was neatly chronicled under a Wiki
sub-heading of ‘Controversy’.
It seemed that even after switching
continents and rugby codes the former Penrith Panthers
player couldn’t shake his hard-drinking image, a factor that
threatened to undo his desire to be play international rugby
union once Mallett, a fellow Australian, had completed his
browsing.
“I had a look through Wikipedia and he’s
obviously had a very chequered past,” admitted Mallett in
the Australian press.
“He seemed to be in a lot of trouble in rugby
league, and his disciplinary record didn’t look good at all.
That didn’t inspire much confidence from our end.”
The Italy coach, currently hosting a national
squad get-together, went on: “I think what we need to see
from him was that he’d undergone a complete character change
since then before we’d bring him into the Italian set-up.
Here in Italy, we don’t have the best players in the world,
so the only way we can compete as a team is to have a tight
unit.
“We can’t afford to have any loose cannons in
our team. If he can prove to me that his disciplinary
problems are in the past and that he’s happy to fit into a
team environment, I would be absolutely interested in
bringing him on board. If not, then I would be happier to go
with a younger Italian-born player.”
Sadly for Gower all the facts checked out,
leaving the 30-year-old regretting his colourful past and
proclaiming he was now a changed man.
“It might not make good reading, but that’s
all behind me now. I’m dead keen to play Test rugby, and I
am looking forward to letting Nick (Mallett) know just
that,” was Gower’s frank response.
So, what exactly did Wiki say about Gower
that worried Mallett so much?
Well, under the ‘Controversy’ heading it’s
first entry said the player had been “involved
in a string of alcohol-fuelled off-field incidents”, before
going on to detail some specific highlights, or lowlights
depending on your perspective.
These included: being dropped and fined $AUS
2,500 by the Australian rugby league squad after exposing
himself to a female tourist – he was fined a further $500 in
court after pleading guilty to indecent exposure; being
stripped of the Panthers’ captaincy after more drink-related
misbehaviour, this time at a charity golf do where –
according to the BBC - he was alleged to have groped the
daughter of former international Wayne Pearce and then
threatened Pearce’s son. For that he was fined the tidy
little sum of $100,000, with $70,000 suspended.
Now, it seems, that all that is in Gower’s
past, unless, of course, you happen to be the Italy manager
checking up on a possible new recruit.
It’s
not all bad though and his Wiki entry also confirms that
Gower played 238 games for Penrith in the NRL and was capped
14 times by Australia’s national team. Although he has been
playing mostly at inside centre for Bayonne it seems Mallet
is looking at him as a possible fly-half option for the
forthcoming autumn internationals and subsequent Six Nations
tournament.
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