New French TV Deal - Implications for Rugby as a whole

[suckerforred]

There have been rumblings in the various player associations for a while about the amount of rugby being played by the top players. I can only see this getting more of an issue. In NZ there would be other alternatives - i.e. their National B team would beat most nations on a good day - with player rotation etc. Australia is going to have some issues cause in a lot of cases we do not have the back up players. But that is a discussion for another thread......

 

[BellyTwoBlues]

JSRF, really we have never seen the departure of our top players, in their prime. The reason is because these players are pretty well looked after. Leaving would be more lucrative, however they have contracts which are more than adequate and these contracts would provide greater luxury.

The loss of Mowen, Giteau and Smith isn't due to the greater money on offer. The greater money just makes it an attractive prospect when they have achieved what they wanted to in Australian Rugby. The ARU eligibility rules greatly assist in keeping this in place.

Or in 1 case he's rolled by the then out of his depth coach for standing up and asking why there was double standards in the national set up!

 

[suckerforred]

Would you really call it a "system". Who have the NZRU allowed to play overseas? Carter? Is there anybody else.

They've given Smith and McCaw periods off rugby completely. Do you think they would have allowed it if they chose to play in Europe though given what happened to Carter and the fact he seems to be regularly injured since?

..........

Back on the subject of Carter and his injury concerns, Elsom despite his dominance up there after leaving here in great form came back a shadow of his former self. Can anybody name a player that has come back better, or even equal to when they left?

Perhaps Radike was better and Staniforth was equal, or not much worse. I'm honestly struggling to rack my brain for any other players I remember that haven't come back as less than what they were when they left.

McCaw was a personal choice not to play in his time off. He was actually looking at playing in Japan until his foot injury became a big problem. If there was presure applied for him not to play I don't know. You might be right.

Re Rocky - He was injured when he came back. Just never got right.

Re other players - I don't think that we have seen someone go & then come back a better player yet because of where we are in the 'professional' cycle. Currently players are only leaving once they are getting to the 'end' of their career. (Yes I know there are exceptions.)

Just one - Peter FitzSimmons. Spent 4 years playing in France & Italy (from memory) before he represented the Wallabies. In fact was offered/encouraged to represent France but turned it down.

 

[suckerforred]

Oh, and as much as you might not like Rocky he did leave in his prime. An arguement with the ARU meant that he spent his best years in Ireland.

 

[Train Without a Station]

Rocky was arguably our best player when he left. I considered him to have as much impact for the Wallabies as McCaw did for the All Blacks at the time.

 

[wamberal]

Oh, and as much as you might not like Rocky he did leave in his prime. An arguement with the ARU meant that he spent his best years in Ireland.

Where did you hear that? I understand that he had lost a lot of money in a failed investment, and needed to go overseas for a couple of years to earn the big bucks on offer there to try to recoup his losses a bit.

 

[suckerforred]

Where did you hear that? I understand that he had lost a lot of money in a failed investment, and needed to go overseas for a couple of years to earn the big bucks on offer there to try to recoup his losses a bit.

Just a few places around the traps.

 

[Crashy]

yeah I heard that. The rumour was his agent pushed him towards some property deal that soured. Only a rumour though...

 

[wamberal]

yeah I heard that. The rumour was his agent pushed him towards some property deal that soured. Only a rumour though.

It might have been a rumour, but it was widely reported as factual in the press. And it was never refuted. It happened at a time when quite a few sports personalities lost big bucks gambling on property developments.

 

[TOCC]

Well its nothing more then speculation on this website and doesn't really have a whole lot to do with the thread..