Duncan Casey: You’d better make sure you’re ready when the bubble bursts

Rugby players live in a bubble. To say we are removed from the reality of normal working life is an understatement, writes Duncan Casey.

We know nothing of graduate programmes, climbing the greasy corporate ladder or the grind of the daily nine-to-five. Professional rugby presents its own unique challenges and if you were to ask any of us which lifestyle we’d pick, you’d get the same answer every time.

It may not appear so but rugby players are a reasonably intelligent bunch of people. We tend to be level-headed, hard working, and disciplined. Such traits make it even more surprising that we give the fragility of our careers little or no thought at all. We go through each week in blissful ignorance, thinking it will last forever.