Fascinating article by Robbie Paul See timesonline.typepad.com/rugby_le ... try-5.html

Fascinating article by Robbie Paul See timesonline.typepad.com/rugby_le ... try-5.html

perhaps instead of doing this:

"Full time professionalism was amazing....the idea that I could be home by 2pm before the kids for a sneaky afternoon nap sounded great."

he should have got off his backside and got some additional qualifications that would make it easier to get a job after retirement.

Yeah I read that the same way. I know he will have been saying it in jest, but to be honest, he was a bit short sighted to think he'd be in a game as small as ours for life. In fact, I would say he's been lucky. Not many players go straight from playing to coaching full time professionally. There will be hundreds worse off than him.

I think clubs (I know Warrington for one) place quite a high emphasis on player welfare.

Hull seem to be a good club at looking at the youngsters future, Tom and Jack Briscoe being good examples, insisting they finish their A levels over and above their training at the club.
As for more senior players you cant force someone to do a course, as we all know well, its hard enough to get some so called pros to train.
I worked with Sonny Nickle for a while he took it upon himself to go back to education and study. It was working out for him with a decent job and future.
The help is there but the players have to take some responsibility themselves.

Well then, perhaps when parents of Academy players ask "What about my son's education?" they should change the answer from " He is here to play rugby". Its a short career and education at 17/18 is vitally important and to say such things is totally irresponsible.

I held this back last night because I thought I’d be wrong. But the first two post on this thread state otherwise. So I’ll begin.

A few people on this forum will probably have a ‘serves him right’ smugness towards Scott Naylor of which I find a disgrace. But that’s the typical attitude most employed people throw at the unemployed in this country.

Most soon forget (especially the working class) that some people are born into wealthy families and will die having lived a life that didn’t involve going to the job centre a lot all thanks to the good start in life and good support through it.

The unemployed get the bottom end of the support whilst the rich get the top end. When it reality it should be the other way around.

Damo, shut up and sit down, you're in danger of making sense. Stop it at once.

You are unreal. You wont work because they are "dead end" jobs and wont learn a new trade, even when the job centre offer it to you on a plate and you have the gall to say the unemployed get the bottom end of the support? What exactly are you proposing the job centre should do? Offer you a £200k job a year to sit in your bedroom making youtube videos?

The crux of it is, you just cba to work and instead blame it on everyone else. if you want to work, you WILL find work.

£200k is an obscene amount and only the insecure would strive for such a wage in my position.

I’m lucky that I’ve got food on my plate, roof over my head and a reasonable (was sharing a £120 bottle of Champaign the other night) social life.

However life still goes unfulfilled all because I’m applying for jobs and not getting them. These aren’t savvy media jobs either. Your bottom end dead ones that you talk of.

The job centre should start providing jobs for those who are terminally unemployed like myself and then we’ll either sink or swim. Everyone who wants to work should work for a reasonable wage.

And I do want to work and how I get the money doesn’t bother me as long as its fulfilling. Getting it from the post office every two weeks isn’t believe it or not!

Cant you go back to college? Surely there is a career path you want to do? You are still young. There is plenty you can do with hard work and drive.

I’ve arranged an early morning summit at the job centre tomorrow. Crack of dawn I shall be up, shaven and dressed in my Sunday best.

Going to walk in demanding that I leave with employment.

What, I thought Wigan payed their players a million pounds a week while all the other players in the league were down the pit.