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SYDNEY - Flanker Rocky Elsom says he'd have no problem with an alcohol ban being imposed on the Wallabies' Rugby World Cup campaign, but he believes they would cop sledging from rival teams over it.
Australian Rugby Union supremo John O'Neill was meeting today with senior Wallabies management
and ARU high performance unit manager Pat Howard to discuss possible measures, including curfews and alcohol bans during the tournament in France in the wake of unwelcome headlines which followed Lote Tuqiri and Matt Dunning's post-boot camp partying in Brisbane last week.
"Whatever gets decided, we'll have to deal with," Elsom said today.
"I don't drink much anyway so it's not a biggie."
Elsom said the Wallabies - and especially Dunning, who, like Tuqiri, has landed in strife before for alcohol-related misdemeanours - would probably draw taunts from rival teams in France if such hardline restrictions were enforced.
"I would (bait other teams) if they were coming here and they had something like that - like an alcohol ban or (I had heard) stories of that - I would probably bait them," said Elsom.
Asked how he would handle such treatment from opposition players, he said: "I think it would probably be targeted at probably Matt Dunning the most, so I should be right."
Fellow squad members Adam Freier and Julian Huxley also said they would support an alcohol ban, if that's what was decided today.
"Anything that is put forward to us as a team we have to put in place because we want to win the World Cup," Freier said.
Tuqiri, who was fined $20,000 and suspended for Australia's final two Tri Nations matches last month for missing a team recovery session and then failing a breathalyser test, and Dunning were expected to receive a serious dressing down from O'Neill.
The pair were not present when a taxi driver was allegedly assaulted outside their hotel early on Friday, but ARU officials were annoyed that they'd returned from a nightclub to the hotel with a group including strangers, one of who was later charged over the incident.
Tuqiri said it was unfair to suggest he could be placed on a different curfew to his teammates after a succession of late-night drinking incidents over the past two years.
"You're assuming things there," the superstar winger said.
"Things have happened but ... we'll deal with that as the day goes on.
"I don't really know what's going on .... I'll go back to training and I'll talk to a few players then and we'll move on from there.
"I've spoken to (Wallabies captain) Stirling (Mortlock) and we've had a conversation but that's something that's kept in private.
"I've spoken to a few of the players and they've been very supportive so that's been very nice of them."
- AAP
