Chambers won’t hack it
Last updated 11:30, Friday, 04 April 2008
NOT sure who came up with the brainwave that Dwain Chambers might make a Super League rugby player aged 30, though his trial with Castleford Tigers was launched this week with the flourish of a Barnum & Bailey production.
A media circus hit Cas like never before to report that the drug cheat was to try his luck on trial with The Tigers.
Some in rugby league seem to think it does not matter why the game hits the national headlines, as long as it’s in the spotlight.
The former Olympic sprinter admitted at a packed press conference on Monday he was unaware how many points a try was worth, or even the number of players in a team.
Unlike many, I don’t blame the athlete for trying to earn a living through sport. He committed the ‘crime’ and has done his time. We all make errors of judgement, though admittedly his was a whopper.
He has been shunned by the athletics community since suspended from competition for two years in 2003 for using the designer steroid THG.
Chambers has to repay over £100,00 prize money won when on the drug and has a young family to support. He made a stupid mistake and has paid a huge price.
If he sees the chance of grabbing a 60 grand contract for displaying his athletic prowess, he’s going to grab it.
The fault lies with the Tigers for giving him the platform.
I would have guessed Castleford boss Terry Matterson was misquoted when declaring that Chambers was in contention to face St Helens in Super League on Sunday, due to an injury crisis at The Jungle – if I hadn’t heard him say it on TV.
Thankfully, it later emerged he would face Saints’ reserves, which in its own right is an awesome task for someone who had never handled a rugby ball until a photo shoot last week.
Mark my words, the Saints kids will not be hanging around to ask Chambers to pose for pictures. I actually feel a little sorry for him.
While Cas are in the business of recruiting sporting big-shots, perhaps they should contact Geoff Capes to see if the heavyweight former shot-putter fancies a game in the front-row. He must out-weigh the Tigers’ props by at least 60 or 70 pounds.
Or Ricky Hatton. The boxing champ could prove handy in the scrum flare-ups.
It’s all too silly for words. And what sort of message does it send out to other sports and promising juniors in the Cas reserve-grade hoping to make their Super League mark this term?
There is so much more to rugby league than just sprinting down a touchline. It’s not a contact sport, it’s a collision sport.
Chambers knows nothing about angles of running, positional play, catching a high ball, tackling or being tackled. Such skills cannot be learned in a four-week trial.
If the Tigers are happy about the headlines they have gathered, good for them.
Their Classy Cas tag has never seemed less appropriate.
Imagine the potential impact on Chambers when crunched for the first time by a full-time rival, four stones heavier who has played the sport for a decade or more and is thirsting to bring the superstar down a peg or two.
He could face serious injury, which would in turn bring a ton of negative headlines for the game. He has virtually no chance of transforming in to a high-class league star and I fear he will find out the hard way just how tough the game can be.
Star Chambers? Not likely. Chambers of horrors could be more apt.
