Three Sisters bar managers put their bodies on the line for Rugby World Cup bet

There’s a questionable tattoo in the balance


Bar managers at the Three Sisters on Cowgate took World Rugby Cup rivalry to another level at the weekend.

The managers at the popular bar vowed to either dye their hair, get tattooed, or dress up in drag if their teams lost to each other.

The forfeits were all based on the action happening on the Sunday.

Ireland were knocked out by Argentina before Scottish hearts were broken in their loss to Australia.

Kayley Barbour, from Galashiels, promised to dye her blue if Scotland lost to Australia, whilst Australian bar manager Andrew Cohen said he’d get a tattoo of a thistle if his team lost.

Irishman Eric Drought assumed his team would beat Argentina but his pride didn’t end there.

He claimed he would also get a tattoo if Ireland lost to Australia or dress up in drag if they lost to Scotland in the hypothetical quarter-final.

Aussie manager Andrew Cohen said : “I’d probably rather that Scotland had won to be honest so we’d be busy this weekend and they’d had a good chance of beating Argentina.”
Despite his team’s loss, luck was with the Irishman Eric. He said :

“It was an absolute disaster for Ireland, but thankfully we just didn’t actually stipulate what would happen if Ireland lost to Argentina.”

“The bet was only on if Ireland lost to Scotland or Australia in the semis.”

“I hate tattoos and I’m terrified of needles, so I’m kind of lucky that we didn’t get through in the end.”

“If Ireland lost to Scotland I would have had to dress up like a drag queen, and I really didn’t fancy that.”

“That would have scarred me for life.”

Kayley Barbour, Eric Drought and Andrew Cohen

Andrew added : “We stuffed the bet up a bit, we should have put a clause in the bet if Ireland lost in the quarters.”

It was the unfortunate Kayley who came up with the idea though.

She admitted :”We were all really defensive about who was going to win, all backing our own teams.

“It started off as a joke, I never really thought that Scotland had a chance, but then in the game we did.

“I accepted defeat before the game started and had already bought the hair dye but during the game I thought we could do it so I actually put another bet on it during the game.”

You’ve got no fans

Kayley didn’t mince her words when saying how she felt about the referee’s controversial decision to award Australia the decisive last minute penalty.

She said:”It categorically wasn’t a penalty. There are no words that describe how angry that man made me that day, one of the other managers was crying in here as well.

“I would have dyed my hair completely blue if we lost fair and square, but because of that decision, I only dyed the end of it.”

Barely blue

Despite losing the bet, Kayley remained upbeat and said that they’d all be up for another bet involving tattoos for the Six Nations.