A woman who was allegedly raped by NRL player Tristan Sailor had been drinking margaritas for hours before she met him at a Sydney pub, a court has heard.
Sailor, 23, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of aggravated sexual assault inflicting actual bodily harm on the 24-year-old woman.
Giving evidence at his trial in the NSW District Court on Monday, Sailor testified that when the pair met at the Beach Road Hotel in Bondi on October 3, 2020, one of the first things she mentioned was that she had been drinking margaritas since lunchtime at a "bottomless brunch".
But the former St George Illawarra player said he didn't believe she was drunk when they met, and instead had a bubbly demeanour.
When the prosecution put to him that the woman had consumed a margarita and a rum and coke within half an hour of arriving at the pub, he said he hadn't been paying attention to her drinking.
CCTV footage played in court showed a group of about half a dozen people drinking in the beer garden, and revealed the out-of-contract player and his alleged victim were part of a group playing a drinking game called "Tiger Tiger".
It's alleged that later on Sailor went back to the woman's apartment with one of her friends and Sailor's teammate Eddie Blacker, where the alleged assault took place.
Sailor also testified that 17 months before that night, he had exchanged flirtatious messages with the woman on Instagram.
The court heard that in March 2019 he saw her Instagram profile and thought she was attractive, sending her a message saying "hello honey", which she returned with a honey pot emoji.
During their online messaging, the woman mentioned she was moving house, and Sailor asked if she had a king size bed and whether there might be room for him in it.
He agreed this was overtly flirtatious, and testified that he wanted to have sex with her and believed it was possible she also wanted this, but denied he had an expectation that it would happen.
The court heard Sailor told her he liked a challenge.
"When do I start my challenge?" he asked her.
"Whenever you are ready to put the work in," she replied.
But the online communication stopped after he asked to meet up with her one night and did not hear back.
Sailor gave evidence they discussed these online exchanges when they met that night at the pub, and he agreed he would occasionally receive provocative online messages and photos from female fans.
The hearing continues.
