Rugby League’s Bad Boy, Booze Culture
- Wendall Sailor
The Australian Rugby Union over the past decade had flirted with the notion of approaching and acquiring Australian rugby league players, with a recipe of sprinkling a generous amount of money, adding water and creating an instant Wallaby, from an already-established rugby league superstar, producing the likes of Andrew Walker, Wendell Sailor, Lote Tuquri, and Matt Rogers.
The only problem with this short list of players, they came, they played, they misbehaved and then left. They swapped the 13-man game for the 15-man game, tanking the ‘Gold and Green’, only to fall from grace and run back to rugby league in disgrace.
Drugs, indiscretions and a general lack of desire to continue this version of the code had ended their rugby careers, dragging along the clean name rugby union had earned and forged in Australian sports.
Yet, some rugby league players have established themselves as worthy rugby union players and to this day, play with pride and respect, such as Berrick Barnes and Brad Thorn.
The attitude at ARU headquarters had notably changed over the past year however, since the last incident with Lote Tuquri ended in his contract terminated, and when the next potential instant rugby star, Jonathan Thurston was given the cold shoulder.
There have been media speculation this week that Thurston who set rugby league alight last year, would make himself available to join rugby union, with the player’s agent going on a fishing expedition to see if the ARU would be able to match the player’s set price tag.
Tthe recent messages shown by the ARU, who would normally provide a ‘top-up’, financially, to it’s super 14 teams for signing marquee players, signify a change in attitude when it comes to converting rugby league players.
Thurston’s agent figured a $700,000 per season asking price from either the new Melbourne Rebels, or Queensland would sweeten the deal for him to play union, the ARU stepped in and circulated a directive warning all of it’s Super franchises from approaching the player.
This may not stop Thurston from following in Gasnier’s footsteps, another rugby league player who initially looked at playing rugby in Australia but instead went to play in France, but the ARU were not prepared to foot the asking price it once afforded, for rugby league players.
More so, this signifies a new stance that the ARU can generate it’s own players and not have to pay inflated prices for rugby league players who want to don the Wallaby jersey along with the greedy intentions of playing in the World Cup, getting as much money as possible and then going back to rugby league.
The ARU had finally learned that their historical approach to attracting players, through fattening their wallets, rather than venting out the players with a genuine passion and desire to play rugby union, is an expensive short-term gain, with harmful long-term ramifications for the game.
The greed of throwing money at a player, leads to apathy, arrogance and the development of a disruptive personality within the rugby fraternity, in Australia, leading to indiscretions and ultimately a breach of agreements with the ARU.
By Doron Katz
With thanks to SARugby.com
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