Peter Stringer
Former Ireland and Munster rugby player
What scares you most?
I can’t say I’m a fan of rats. Coming face to face with a rat certainly gives me the creeps, even just thinking about it. Saying that, I would let 10 or 20 rats crawl all over me if it meant passing a challenge [laughs]. I always had people running after me on the rugby pitch and that was frightening enough. That was my biggest fear for a time, all these men who were bigger than me, but it probably made me a faster player.
A lot of sports stars have superstitions, did you have any?
I always sat in the same seat on the bus, next to the window. John Hayes always sat next to me, little and large. I’d say people could barely see me over the seat given our size difference. John was always my protector on the way to a match and on big days.
What is your favourite scary movie?
I love old-school stuff like Nightmare On Elm Street and the original Halloween, they always put the creeps up me. I remember watching it when I was younger and thinking that it was absolutely terrifying. You were never allowed to watch those kinds of movies and that made them even scarier at the time.
When in your life have you been most out of your depth or your comfort zone?
It has to be doing Dancing With The
Stars. I rocked up in a pink suit on day one and I was questioning what I was doing on the show. It was an environment where I was surrounded by actors and TV personalities and they knew how to act in front of the camera. I am shy and an introvert at the best of times so I was very uncomfortable. It was incredibly challenging but I still got through. Then when I was asked to do Ultimate Hell Week, I couldn’t turn it down having already done Dancing With The Stars.
Thinking back to your childhood, what was Halloween like in Cork? Everything was simple, you either wore a black bin bag or an old manky sheet over your head with two holes cut out for the eyes. Everyone was either a witch or ghost. There were also these very cheap plastic masks, I think they were only about 99p, and they always cracked if you bent them. You would always get so sweaty underneath them and they would only cover half of your face. The quality was never the best back then and I don’t even know what they were meant to be. I am jealous of kids these days, I would nearly get one of the newer masks to go trick-or-treating this year!