Editorial: Sport stars should show better judgment

Cory Jane. Photo/File

Every time our sporting stars make headlines for off-the-pitch antics the nation descends into another round of soul searching and recriminations.

And rightly so.

Questions are raised: What are the expectations around booze? Are our athletes role models and if so what are our expectations of their behaviour? Is blowing off steam partying part and parcel of professional sports?

Only last month Jesse Ryder and Doug Bracewell broke Black Caps protocol by being out drinking early on Waitangi Day, the first day of the opening test against India. The issue has arisen again with All Blacks stars Cory Jane and Israel Dagg embroiled in accusations of mixing sleeping pills and energy drinks during the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Jane and Dagg were spotted acting curiously at a bar only a few days before New Zealand's quarter-final against Argentina. It was revealed last week the pair may have indulged in mixing the pills with energy drinks in a bid to create a legal high.

New Zealand rugby boss Steve Tew also said the pair were drinking at the time.

We're a nation of sports lovers and we invest in our teams - not only financially by buying tickets and merchandise, or through government grants, but emotionally.

Sports stars are role models. We do and should have high expectations of our top professional athletes and they should be much better at their jobs than we are at ours.

Rugby World Cups only come around once every four years. Rugby World Cups in New Zealand only come around every 24 years or so.

Is it too much to ask them to focus on the task at hand? They're at the top of their game by virtue of being better than nearly everyone else doing the same thing. They wouldn't be there without a certain amount of tough self-discipline.

Why does that go out the window at the most inopportune moment?