20 Things Rugby Players Did in the Changing Room in the 1980s That Would Shock Players Today!

On a Saturday in 1984, a Scotland full-back named Peter Dods kicked his country to a Grand Slam. Days later, he was back at his real job — painting and decorating in his home town. And nobody thought that was strange, because in the 1980s that is exactly what a rugby international was: a working man who happened to be brilliant, who went back to work on the Monday. The room where that whole world lived was the changing room, and the cameras almost never went inside it. Cold concrete, one bar heater, the smell of mud and Deep Heat. And after the match, the entire team climbed into a single bath together. What went on in that room would get a modern club investigated or shut down on medical grounds. Rugby union was amateur by law until it turned professional on one day in August 1995 — and almost all of this was swept away within a few short years. This is the countdown of 20 things rugby players did in the changing room in the 1980s that would shock players today. Number 4 cuts against everything the sport claimed to be. Number 1 is so alien that a player under thirty has never even seen it. Inside the 1980s changing room: 🥾 One pair of leather boots, waxed with dubbin and dried on the one heater 👕 Heavy cotton jerseys worn soaked for the full 80 minutes 🧺 Kit washed by wives, mums and club volunteers 🚬 Cigarettes as a normal part of the match-day routine 💉 Painkilling jabs just to get out onto the pitch 🧽 A cold bucket and a sponge as the entire medical kit 💷 Brown envelopes of “boot money” stuffed in the boots 🍺 A beer in the corner before kickoff, and the famous post-match session 🛁 And at Number 1 — one shared, scalding, muddy bath for the whole team, killed off by the HIV fears of the decade None of this makes those men soft. They played a hard, cold, filthy game for no money and no fuss, and looked after each other because there was nobody else to do it. Ask the men who were there what they miss, and almost every one says the same thing: the brotherhood that only a room like that could build. 👉 Tell us in the comments which one you’d bring back. And if you love the old game — the real old game — subscribe for more. #Rugby #RugbyHistory #WhenRugbyWasRugby #AmateurRugby #OldSchoolRugby