Editorial: Playing pitch no toilet

To pee or not to pee? A dilemma Warriors prop Russell Packer was faced with when he took to the field against the Broncos.

His pre kick-off antics have caused an uproar when the barnstorming prop decided to urinate on the field. It was a stupid manoeuvre when you think of the umpteen TV cameras pointed at the field.

Not only were Packer's actions offensive, but also carried a health risk for those playing against him. One of his main jobs on the field is to take the ball up and smash into the defensive line with some of the opposition, trying to tackle him around the legs.

It's not the first time a high profile player has been caught on field urinating during a match.

Former All Black Jerry Collins was guilty of the same thing, however he did try to be a little more discrete about it by kneeling down, unfortunately for Collins, a long range zoom lens captured more than Collins would have liked.

As many who have competed will tell you, nerves can be a vicious beast when they want to be and will play evil tricks on the body at the most inappropriate times.

Without trying to sound like I'm defending the 23-year-old and assuming he had made sure he went to the loo before going on the field, what were his options?

Leave the field and his side down a player for those few minutes he's off the field?

Use an interchange which could have a huge impact later in the match?

Perhaps spend the next 40 minutes trying to hold it and as many will know, do a silly little jig while trying to hold it?

Does the NRL need to allow a player to leave the field for calls of nature allowing the player to be replaced without it affecting the interchange?

If that's the case, would we then see teams taking advantage of the rule?

Whatever the answer is, the sad thing was that the incident overshadowed a great 56-18 victory by the Warriors.