Caught short - or just too drunk to notice?

Oh, lordy, another sportsman has been caught peeing in a bar. Cricketer Tama Canning is the latest, but probably not the last, to have been fined for doing what mainly rugby players have done before.

The Blues have an unhappy record. Mils Muliaina and Tony Coughlan have both been publicly shamed for urinating in bars.

It is a curious phenomenon that you may be relieved (excuse the pun) to know is not restricted to New Zealanders.

This kind of behaviour goes on worldwide. Our Australian neighbours are prone to it, as are occasional soccer players in Britain.

We asked psychologists, what is going on here?

We asked bar staff. We asked former All Black Stu Wilson and Googled the phenomenon - which is not advisable given some of the websites that pop up. Urinating in public places is a big problem in India, for example, and the Hindustan Times online poses a series of questions about it - such as, is it part of the male quest for dominance?

There is also a theory that it is "veiled exhibitionism", or, if not that, "it just might have something to do with Freud's comparison of urinating with sexual gratification".

Professor Gary Hermansson, president of the Sports Psychology Association, thinks there is something male and hormonal about the behaviour. But then, it could just be about anatomy. If you are a male then you have a bit more freedom to urinate where you like. It's more tricky for women.

He does not think it is about marking out territory, as in the canine world. "I would imagine that if it was territorial then when people get drunk you'd find they would go and piddle everywhere, you know, a little bit here and a little bit there.

"I think it's more likely to be just the pressure of, you know, bladder pressure, a lot to drink then going past the point of control."

The thing about bars is that you are often already standing up and there are often pot plants. "One rugby player I know did it in a pot plant area, which is a bit like a urinal in itself."

Another psychologist, Dr Ian Lambie from Auckland University, says sportsmen are encouraged to be macho and aggressive. "Put that together with alcohol and they'll just, you know, 'I'm happy to do what I want to and I don't care if anyone sees my, whatever, and I'll make a dick of myself, literally'."

At Otago University's Physical Education Department, Dr Ken Hodge stopped laughing long enough to say he was not sure there was an answer. "It does sort of beggar belief but people do different things when they're boozed."

On reflection, though, he also thought it could have something to do with sportsmen and pedestals. "That may have led them even subconsciously to have the opinion that the normal rules don't apply to them."

A quick survey of Auckland bar staff tells us it does not usually happen among ordinary folk, although some claim to have seen it being done.

All Black legend Stu Wilson has some interesting theories about offending sportsmen, one of which is that bars today often have little caricatures on the doors instead of the words 'male' and 'female' and this can be very confusing for a drunk.

"The boys just think, 'Well, bugger it. I can't go into any of them, I'll just do it on the floor'."

Wilson is only partly joking. He used to have a bar and did not have a peeing inside problem, which he puts down to toilets clearly marked Male and Female. But the real issue is a change in drinking habits. In his day as an All Black someone was always assigned to look after the ones who got too drunk. He recalls a tour to Britain when senior members of the team ordered him to look after a player one night.

"I basically followed this guy round for two or three hours hoping he'd fall over and I'd take him home, but I lost him and he got into a fight. He ducked into a bar when I was preoccupied with someone else."

Which still leaves the question about why sportsmen in particular seem to be the ones caught out in bars. Wilson does not hesitate: "It might be our IQ level, eh?"