But the experiment took its toll on her health.”My skin became extremely dry I lost my jaw line It became saggy and very unattractive. I developed chipmunk cheeks, which is just horrible, and put on 8lbs in weight – I was drinking the equivalent of about 2,000 calories a night.”I was warned that if I carried on I would get central obesity – a big tyre round my stomach It happened. I was enormous – I had to go back to really big clothes.”Towards the end I got quite depressed. She drank eight mojito cocktails, five glasses of wine, three bottles of beer, two vodka and oranges, a bottle of Smirnoff Ice and a Slippery Nipple cocktail – a total of 28 units. Women are supposed to drink no more than two or three units a day – and a maximum of 14 in a week.”At first I found it difficult to drink so much, she said, “but the more I drank the easier it was My tolerance levels shot up – I can really down it now A couple of glasses of wine used to get me a bit tipsy.

Now I have longer staying power.”According to a recent study by Bupa, one-quarter of adults are binge drinkers. Ms Taylor matched the women drink for drink as they downed shots, alcopops and pints in pubs and clubs around the country.
In total she drank 516 units in a month The results were dizzying Her body fat increased from 37.4 per cent to 38.9 per cent. She put on more than half a stone in weight, going from a size 12 to size 14.Most disturbingly, the month-long binge has aged her skin so much that she now has the complexion of someone aged 50 “I cannot believe how bad it all got,” said Ms Taylor. “By the end of it I felt disgusting.”The experiment – reminiscent of the American film-maker Morgan Spurlock eating nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days for his film Super Size Me – will be shown in a BBC documentary, which will be aired on 12 January.Ms Taylor was regularly downing twice the Government’s recommended weekly limit – in a single night. Llanelli’s performance had a lot to do with it and they are looking more like their old selves once more It is going to be a very interesting day.. Nicky Taylor was an ordinary drinker. She never had more than two glasses of white wine a night and rarely exceeded the weekly recommended limit of 14 units.

But in a remarkable experiment, the 40-year-old mother-of-three increased her alcohol intake ten-fold. She went out with a group of twentysomething women five nights a week for a whole month to see first-hand what binge drinking can do to the body. Their chances of qualifying are slim but they will target the next three games to get themselves back into some form. They are still riding high in the Premiership and are in the Powergen Cup semi-finals, but they don’t look as invincible as they did and their basic skills are falling short of top level.They are badly in need of a boost, but they would be wrong to believe that their defeat last weekend was entirely of their own making. Defensively they were solid and Mark Jones produced a piece of brilliance with his try.Undoubtedly it is going to be hard for Llanelli in High Wycombe today.

On the faster track, revenge will be high on Wasps’ agenda, but they will have to work for it. Coach Gareth Jenkins feels that English sides travel to Wales expecting to win and when they don’t they put it down to underperforming when, in reality, they have found the Welsh style different to what they are used to in the Guinness Premiership.That is certainly the case, and whereas I have seen Wasps play a lot better, Llanelli were at them from the start.The Scarlets’ forwards played exceptionally well and helped their team control the game. They have picked their game up in the past couple of weeks and their performance in the first half at Leicester was very encouraging.They should have been further ahead at half-time, and would have been if Henson had not cut inside after making an excellent break. After his long lay-off he probably lacked the confidence to go on the outside, but he played well in his first game back. There’s no doubt that he’s going to be a great asset.Jones has been criticised for excluding Shane Williams last weekend in favour of young Richard Mustoe, who has been doing well in Shane’s absence on international duty.

There is every sense in sticking with a youngster if he is doing well, and Mustoe responded with a good game.If they win today and then go on to beat Stade Fran?s in the final group match they will want all the on-song players they can get.When Llanelli Scarlets beat Wasps at Stradey last weekend there were no bitter words, but Llanelli were indignant that they did not get the credit they deserved. Obstruction, channel-blocking – nothing is sacred, and you have to adapt to the situation or hope the ref is alive to what’s happening.It should be a lot tougher for Leicester in front of a big crowd at the new stadium today, and the Ospreys must fancy their chances. The Ospreys should have done something about it at the time, or at least they should have made sure that the referee knew what was going on.Coach Jones was upset at the amount of shirt-tugging Leicester indulged in. In his playing days, he said, shirt-tuggers got a smash in the face and didn’t do it again. Unfortunately, now the retaliator is more likely to collect the punishment, so it’s the same case of ensuring the referee is aware of it.Defences are so tight these days that teams have to take any opportunity to clear the way for a break. Leicester are very clever at playing right on the very edge of the rules, and the word for that is gamesmanship It is only cheating if the referee says that it is.