So, Vern, how does battering rabbits to death make you a better rugby player?
Player tells of barbaric training exercise
SCOTLAND’S rugby team is at the centre of an animal rights row after claims players were told to kill rabbits with their bare hands.
Shocking details of the bizarre training exercise organised by head coach Vern Cotter came to light yesterday.
Former Scotland forward Jim Hamilton, who attended the camp in France last June ahead of the Rugby World Cup, said players were told it would ‘toughen them up’.
He claimed Cotter, dressed in ‘full outdoor hunter gear’, picked on Richie Gray – the 6ft 10in lock – who asked not to take part.
Animal rights campaigners criticised the ‘unnecessary cruelty’ last night and called on rugby bosses to justify what the violent act had to do with sporting success. Elisa Allen, UK director of charity People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said: ‘Turning rugby players into killers won’t improve their game. To call it “unsporting” is an understatement.
‘Crushing the skulls of rabbits and slitting their throats are terrifying and agonising ways to kill these sensitive, intelligent animals. Such acts may be illegal in France, where this cruelty allegedly occurred.
‘PETA is calling on authorities to investigate and also asking the rugby authorities to take immediate action to put a stop to any further “training” with animals.’
Hamilton, who won 63 caps for Scotland and still plays professionally for the Saracens club in London, told how the squad were marched into the Pyrenees as part of a commando-style training exercise with the French Marines.
Speaking on the Rugby Pod last week, Hamilton recalled: “I swear to God Vern was sitting there in full hunter gear – big jumper, walking boots and he’s got a knife.
‘He said, “Right lads, we’ve got four rabbits and we are cooking these for dinner. Who doesn’t want to kill the rabbits?”.
‘Richie Gray puts his hand up, along with Ross Ford, Stuart Hogg and another guy, and they were told, “Right, you four are killing the rabbits.’
‘An army guy at the camp pulled out this bunny rabbit – it’s not even a wild rabbit – and says, “This is how you need to kill it”. He’s swinging this rabbit round with one hand, next thing he slams it on the floor.
‘I’m not joking, the thing’s eyes popped out of its head, then he cuts his throat. And he’s like, “Right, that’s how you kill it”.
‘So Richie is spinning this thing round and he’s saying he can’t slam it and Vern shouts, “F ****** kill it!”. Richie does it, but it’s not dead, it’s shaking like mad and there’s blood everywhere – and he’s slamming it over the head with a stick. Needless to say, the rabbits didn’t taste that succulent – they were a bit tough. But that’s all we had for food, with 35 baguettes.’
The rabbit incident came as the Scotland squad arrived at their pretournament training base at Font Romeu in the Pyrenees.
Hamilton, who in the end wasn’t selected by Cotter for the World Cup in England, added: ‘Vern said, “Lads, before you go, this is about toughening bloody up – let’s see who wants it”.
‘We were told we had to walk for six or seven hours up to a checkpoint in the mountain. No sleeping bags, no tents, no kit – there are 40 big rugby players sat around the campfire and literally we are freezing all night long.’
Last night, Hamilton appeared to backtrack from some of his comments, tweeting that the survival camp at Font Romeu was ‘v educational’ and his account of the rabbit deaths had been ‘exaggerated’.
The ‘team-building’ exercise has echoes of the infamous Camp Steel Wire endured by the South African rugby team ahead of the 2003 World Cup – where players were reportedly made to strip naked at gunpoint and pump up rugby balls in a freezing lake. The team was said to have been woken every 15 minutes by gunfire while sleeping outdoors and told to climb into a hole, where recordings of the English national anthem and New Zealand’s haka were played.
Scottish Rugby refused to comment last night. But a Murrayfield insider admitted rabbits had been killed by the players at the camp.
The source said: ‘This was a wellorganised, well-resourced teambuilding exercise led by the Marines, where the guys where shown how to survive. They were shown, as a survival technique, how to kill rabbits and some took part. It was done properly and humanely and no one was forced to do it. Vern Cotter did not order any players to do this.
‘Unfortunately, some of what Jim Hamilton talked about on the podcast has been exaggerated.’
‘Unnecessary cruelty’
‘It’s not dead, there’s blood everywhere’