Two litres of Coke, McDonalds vouchers and dressing room ciggies – The early days of professional rugby

Rugby has been professional, and extremely so, for 21 years but most sides only got their act together a decade ago.

The transition from amateur to professional happened over the course of one heated afternoon, in Paris. Clubs, countries and players quickly found out, however, that it would take much more than that to make the changeover. Australia, New Zealand and South Africa's Test sides were not far off professional in 1995 so they hit the ground running. Ireland took about six years to accept there was no going back. Still, Brian O'Driscoll will tell anyone that listens about the Mars bars and Coke cans thrown out for 'recovery' after training. Paul O'Connell grimaces when he recalls doing weights in an empty classroom - taller players were not allowed lift weights above their heads as the foam, drop-down roof was too low. SportsJOE caught up with Isaac Boss [Leinster, Ireland and former Ulster] and Nathan Hines [former Leinster and Scotland] to talk about the good, bad old days.

Isaac Boss

"Rugby was pretty amateur, when I look back on it now. 1999 was my first year playing and it had only been professional a few years. It would not have been a career choice for a lot of kids. "The food, after training, was fish & chips. Stuff like that. "One of the first years of Super Rugby, McDonalds was a sponsor so everyone got cards for free McDonalds. There were a few chains almost eaten out of food. Think they stopped handing those cards out pretty soon after."

Nathan Hines

"There's some stuff that I've seen that would never stand in modern rugby. "The drinking culture was massive when I got to Scotland [Edinburgh] in the late 90s. Lads out for buckets of pints the night before a game. "During my first stint in France [2005 to 2009 at Perpignan], you would have had big, 2-Litre bottles of Coke on the dressing room table before the game. Many of the players still smoked so you would get them lighting up just before they went out for a game. "When I went back, to Clermont [2011-14], that had mostly died out but you had the odd lad having a sneaky smoke. "I never got into the whole thing of psyching yourself up too much for a match. Some of the front row lads, in France, would be headbutting each other. Many of them would be in tears. Crazy, uncontrollable stuff. "Isa Nacewa will tell you, that's not how we did it at Leinster. "I remember, before we played a PRO12 semi-final against Ulster, Isa and I were fixated on the 'Spot the Difference' pictures in the Leinster programme. 'Ah, I've got five. How many have you got?' 'I've only got four'. "Times have changed."