The look on Matt Giteau’s face said it all. While Giteau’s good friend and halfback partner Matt Henjak did his best to appear unconcerned at Western Force training on Monday night, the usually bubbly Wallaby superstar trudged past apparently with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

See a timeline of Western Force woes

An hour before, the club had confirmed they were investigating a drunken altercation between halfback Henjak and teammate Haig Sare, which finished with the winger in hospital with a broken jaw.

A pre-season already dogged by scandal was spiralling out of control.

And Giteau, the new vice-captain of a team suddenly in crisis, displayed a furrowed brow mirrored by many around RugbyWA headquarters.

While much has gone right since the Force were given a seat at the Super 14 table in 2005, more and more has started to go wrong.

The first year brought the novelty of regular international sporting competition to Perth, as well as the game of rugby union, which until then had enjoyed support largely from Australians who had relocated from eastern states and overseas ex-pats.

From one international a year, WA’s rugby tragics suddenly had a team of their own and it was embraced with vigour.

In their debut season, 14th place and no home wins were forgiven in a city used to demanding excellence from its sporting icons.

But as the Force improved on-field in their second year, it began to appear the new franchise was absorbing some of the worst aspects of other Perth sporting institutions.

With battle lines between east and west already well established, the Australian Rugby Union’s hard line on the Force’s recruiting tactics saw them hammer the new boys with a $110,000 fine for an illegal approach to Waratahs lock Al Kanaar.

Force bosses grumbled and coach John Mitchell stuck to his guns about his team being the “little brother” in the playground, but nothing seemed to change.

A jump of seven places in one year on the field mirrored more accusations off it, with denials of outside payments to players rescinded in light of damning evidence.

Another six-figure ARU fine was handed down, and more mea culpa expressed, but the genie was out of the bottle and more headlines, this time about player behaviour, echoed whispers of a drinking culture.

Henjak’s previous problems while a Brumbie and a Wallaby resurfaced at the Force Christmas party in 2006, when former CEO Peter O’Meara’s son Liam, an events coordinator with RugbyWA, was injured in a drunken incident.

O’Meara this week admitted the club brought in a sports psychologist to investigate whether it had a systemic drinking problem, or just a few problem individuals.

That report concluded the latter, which was proved correct by Scott Fava and Richard Brown, whose antics with native quokkas on Rottnest Island last November landed them with big fines and did the Force brand serious damage.

Now Henjak has allegedly had a public fracas with a teammate, once again putting his employers in the line of fire from supporters and the ARU.

Henjak will travel and play while internal disciplinary processes continue, putting pressure on both himself and on a team already facing three crucial games in South Africa to start the new season.

And that decision has earned the fury of the ARU, who were already watching the Force closely and are now threatening to take matters into their own hands if they believe the punishment does not fit the alleged crime.

The Force are between a rock and a hard place, with no experienced back-up for Henjak but almost no choice but to sack him if it is proved he seriously assaulted a teammate.

What newcomers such as Josh Tatupu – who replaced Sare in South Africa – Tamaiti Horua and Adam Clarke must think of their new employers one can only guess.

But what is sure is another sporting scandal in Western Australia has people asking what they put in the water here – or if any of the footballers who live in WA ever drink just plain H2O?

A list of the Western Force’s woes since arriving in the Super 14 in 2005:

*February 2006 – Scott Fava disciplined after blowing over club-regulated alcohol level at team recovery session.

*May 2006 – Force fined $110,000 by the ARU for incorrect dealings with Waratahs second-rower Al Kanaar. After a Force appeal, the fine was reduced and partly suspended.

*February 2007 – Fava dropped, and Cameron Shepherd and Haig Sare disciplined, after all testing positive to alcohol at training.

*September 2007 – ARU fines the Force $150,000 for breaching contracting protocols, after reports they paid more than $300,000 to players not shown within “player costs” for 2006.

*November 2007 – Reports the Force paid $16,000 to a South African national, who subsequently dropped allegations of an alleged nightclub incident by Matt Henjak while he was a Brumbies player.

*November 2007 – Reports two players assaulted a former employee in a Sydney bar early in 2006.

*November 2007 – Further reports former chief financial officer David Round was being sued by the Force in the WA Supreme Court for confidentiality breaches.

*November 2007 – Fava and Richard Brown fined a total of $16,000 for mistreating quokkas at a bonding camp on Rottnest Island.

*January 2008 – CEO Peter O’Meara leaves, with club saying they wanted him to commit to more than one more year.

*February 2008 – Matt Henjak investigated by the club after teammate Haig Sare has his jaw broken during an altercation at a Fremantle bar.

© AAP 2012

Enjoy sports? Enjoy a bargain? All Sports Online has your favourite sporting brands at up to 70% off. Online only, premium quality sporting goods and merchandise at discounted prices. Get a deal now.