The late-night Wallabies 'error of judgement' that was 'blown out of proportion'

It remains etched forever in Lions series folklore but 2013 Wallabies teammates reckon Kurtley Beale and James O’Connor’s infamous early-morning burger bust was “blown out of proportion”.

Beale and O’Connor being captured at 3.50am at a fast food outlet between the first and second Tests of the previous series in Australia, 12 years ago, sent Fleet Street into a frenzy.

Sans Quade Cooper, the other two of Australian rugby’s so-called ‘Three Amigos’ watched their then-club side Melbourne Rebels lose to the British and Irish Lions’ mid-week outfit 35-0 in Melbourne before heading to a post-match function.

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Rugby Australia accepted the pair’s explanation that they had not been drinking and opted to take no disciplinary action Beale and O’Connor, who helped the Wallabies level the series four days later with a 16-15 victory over the Lions.

“We were just hungry,” Beale told AAP this week while reflecting on the “error in judgement”.

“We went in there and got a feed, and then we were heading back to the hotel. And then these guys took the photo and they put it in the paper.

“I thought we were doing a good thing, saying ‘G’day’. These lads were full of alcohol and sent it into the paper. And here we are.

“I mean, looking at it now, I don’t really see anything of it really.”

Nor did Beale’s teammates.

“I was vice-captain at the time and I didn’t think about it as being a big deal,” halfback Will Genia told AAP.

“They just had Burger King on a Tuesday night and we had Wednesday off.

“The biggest thing was probably that they were out late. If they were going to be up late, they probably would have been better off being in their rooms.

“But at the end of the day, I thought that was blown out of proportion.

“Those sorts of things happen. Like players are in their room til three o’clock in the morning playing PlayStation or whatever the games are called these days.

“What that does go to show, though, is the level of scrutiny and the level of attention that is on these tours is a different level.

“And that’s what I loved about it. That’s what I really enjoyed about it. I love that it was this massive event.”

Looking back, Beale shrugs off the episode as “another embarrassing moment where it probably got taken out of perspective a bit”.

“We didn’t really know any better,” he said.

“We still turned up the next day, rocked up, still trained, did our job for the team.

“But understanding now how that could have a negative impact on the team and the look, we could probably look back and regret that decision.

“But there was no intention to go out. It was the time when social media was starting to get out.

“It’s one that you just look back on and just got to understand the power of social media.

“With phones, people have got a camera everywhere. It’s crazy.”

More than a decade on, Beale’s missed late penalty kick when he had the chance to boot Australia to victory in the first Test three days earlier remains the more regrettable slip-up for he and Genia.

“The pitch was a bit soggy and I wasn’t wearing studs that day either. I was wearing moulds, which is probably the biggest learning curve I’ve taken,” recalls Beale, who still “looks away” whenever footage of the slip is shown.

While he doesn’t blame Beale, Genia maintains that missed shot at goal and a loose kick from Berrick Barnes that allowed George North to score in the Lions’ 23-21 win ultimately proved the turning point of the series.

“The reason I can say we we lost the series is we should have won the first Test,” Genia said.

“We won the second but it took a lot out of us emotionally to come back and win that, and then we were probably a bit flat. We couldn’t recover emotionally.”