War of the codes
20 Apr 2006
In an escalation of the cross-code poaching war between rugby union and rugby league in-form Waratahs utility Peter Hewat has been approached by NRL club the Cronulla Sharks about switching codes.
With rugby’s public courtship of Kangaroos centre Mark Gasnier dominating recent headlines, the Sharks’ interest in the dynamic back, who is possibly on the verge of a Wallabies call-up, could be seen as league returning fire.
But there is one problem – Hewat is on contract until the end of the 2008 season and NSW coach Ewen McKenzie says the Waratahs have no intention of letting him go.
“We’ve heard there has been an approach but we’re not concerned because we’ve got him contracted for another couple of years,” McKenzie said. “In a way we see it as a bit of a compliment because we gave him a chance and he’s really taken it up and they obviously see a bloke with a fair bit of ability.
“We know he has had an approach from a European club as well. He has had a slow start to the year but now he’s displaying the form he showed last year. Pete is playing with less risk and more maturity this year and every game he is enhancing his prospects of playing at a higher level.”
27 Comments
20 Apr 2006, 07:06 am
Liked this bit from their manager: “I can fully understand why they are after a player of
Pete’s calibre but he’s not going anywhere – he wants to play on the big
stage,” Neill said.”
20 Apr 2006, 07:06 am
Ahhh clean forgot DRAGONS!!!
20 Apr 2006, 07:25 am
The Cronulla Sharks are certainly on a much lower level. Way low…
20 Apr 2006, 08:22 am
LOL
stupid diet rugby club
20 Apr 2006, 09:18 am
cant league just die already…
20 Apr 2006, 09:35 am
Ai yoda, it will unfortunately be a very slow and agonising death, to many high profile and in the money people supporting it!
20 Apr 2006, 10:03 am
Whilst living in Australia I couldn’t help myself and get into league a bit and I actually enjoyed watching it the NRL over there have some really good match ups.
In saying that though it’s not Union and it never will be, Union is far more a game and entertaining than league.
We can count ourselves lucky though that the Wallibies have not been able to lure over some of the top players in the NRL cause they would be almost unstoppable if they were able to fully tap into that.
20 Apr 2006, 10:17 am
CSB
I doubt it boet. Sure Aus might have a hot Backline, but the league types will never hack it in the forwards. Those dudes just wont appreciate being a stationary target at a ruck and allowing a guy to smash him just beacause he is near the ball. Never.
Whats more I doubt a league forward will ever fully grasp the technical aspect of set piece play and attacking off set pieces. Look at Brad Thorn as an example. In broken play they will be very strong though.
Anyway ever hear the adage: The forwards determine who wins a rugby match, the backs just determine by how much.
Ask the Aus test team of last year about that.
20 Apr 2006, 10:30 am
TigerShark,
Their backline will certainly be **** hot as for forward play I tend to agree but there are some guys I think could hack it in Union as a forward.
It should be fairly easy to coach them into it especially in Aus.
A guy like Willie Mason from the Bulldogs will certainly add alot to a Auz pack.
20 Apr 2006, 10:43 am
I hear you with regards Willie the man is a beast. Still where would you play him? Blind side or 8? I doubt he would make it as a tight forward.
I also think that most league forwards will get pretty bleak only touching the ball two or three times a match (as a tight forward) and still be expected to tackle your heart out and clean out all those rucks. I doubt they are used to working that hard.
He will need to watch out with regards his extra curicula activities though.
20 Apr 2006, 11:00 am
TigerShark,
A beast indeed, I think #8 would suit him.
You spot on though re-conditioning clearing out rucks and covering the entire field would do them in.Different conditioning.
A bit on the wild side too but what league players aren’t?
20 Apr 2006, 11:54 am
Is the NRL shown in RSA??
No question Willie Mason would be a sensation in rugby and would be athletic and tall enough to become a reasonable lineout jumper. You look at somebody like Rocky Elsom, played 3rd grade for the Bulldogs and plays for the Waratahs the following year. Wycliff Palu played 2nd grade for the Dragons two years ago and is now a strong possibility for the Wallabies. So what is needed is more quality league props to come and play in the rugby backrow. Australia has really missed someone who can take the pill over the advantage line on a consistant basis since the decline of Melon Finnegan.
Scott Bowen is another back that would cause the same destruction that Rogers does against African teams.
If Joeys Johns could play for the Boks you guys would be close to favourites to win the RWC with that pack in front of him.
20 Apr 2006, 12:01 pm
SSRabbit,
Ah thanks i was trying to think of his name J Johns the brother of the dude thats on the footy show hey?
You may be right he would totally solve SA fly-half problems.
What happened to the proposed move for him to switch to Union.I recall a million dollar offer till he injured his knee.
20 Apr 2006, 12:07 pm
Coffee Johns was about to turn 30, never played a game of RU in his life, and is very injury prone. The ARU said no mostly based on his injury history. The Waratahs then tried to get him by themselves by getting their sponsors to chip in. Both the NRL and the Tahs offered him around $AUS900K pa and he decided to stay with the Newcastle Knights. Such a pity that someone of his talents is unknown outside the Nth of England, Australia and NZ.
Do they show the NRL in SA?
20 Apr 2006, 12:09 pm
brett robinson decided it was best that the ARU didn’t sign Johns. at the time he missed almost a whole season due to injury.
No high profile union player goes to league these days in oz. mind you hewat hasn’t had a normal career.
20 Apr 2006, 12:15 pm
SSR, There is very limited viewing of the NRL in SA, I got into it and watched a few games whilst I was in Australia.I lived a stones throw away from the Rabbits staduim.
Johns was extremely talented and had he switched earlier I’m sure he would have been one of the best #10 the game has seen.
20 Apr 2006, 12:16 pm
Heres an interesting post on a RL board about RU in South Africa. According to this poster, RU in RSA is only a game for the whites of English heritage. Quite a ripper this..
http://forums.leagueunlimited.com/showthread.php?t=137434
“It is well established that it is only the last vestiges of the British Empire that care about RU in SA. the blacks are soccer mad like the rest of the world.”
20 Apr 2006, 13:10 pm
Tiann Strauss qualified for the Wallabies through playing league for Cronulla.
20 Apr 2006, 13:44 pm
The leagie props would make decent 7′s and 8′s, and some very good centers and wings (that ET bloke for the cronulla sharks would have made a great union centre), but the other positions are more specialised in union.
Have watched quite alot of league over here, think union is a far richer game, but their are some undeniably good skills in league, handling is superb. Still running lines are different as is tackling.
20 Apr 2006, 13:54 pm
Nathan Hindmarsh could make it as a blindside in union.
20 Apr 2006, 15:06 pm
Joey Johns is a Machine!
If he switched to union, he would take Steve Larkem’s place in an instant! More flair then Carter, but wouldnt be as consistant.
**** he can tackle too!
There was talk of him playing No.9 I think, so understudy to gregan, shame it didnt happen
20 Apr 2006, 18:19 pm
Johns would be great but would be good, but im sure he is not use to the fact that there will be the likes of george smith and richie mccaw breathing down his neck all day, to say that he would be the greatest the game has ever seen if he switched over is a kick in the guts to union players of past and present. League ball is very different.
21 Apr 2006, 01:55 am
You guys are missing the real point, if it was not for league these guys would have played union from day 1. It is not if they will be able to make the transition but the caliber of athlete Australia RU is missing out on.
21 Apr 2006, 02:03 am
Australia, like England, has a class-war raging around the two codes of rugby. IN both countries League is the “working-class poor-battler’s” game while Union is the “private-school toffs game”. In Australia there is precious little rugby union coming out of government schools, but the private schools allow it to flourish.
In New Zealand rugby league is very popular but its still mainly a working-class battler Maori/Islander game, while rugby union cuts across all borders and is nothing much less than the NZ national religion.
21 Apr 2006, 02:09 am
Many leaguies have turned out to be very skilful union players. Mat Rogers (Tahs) and Piri Weepu (Canes), to name but two.
Not too many union boys have made a grand switch to league, though. One the rare exceptions is Tom van Vollenhoven, early 1950′s Springbok, who went to play in England for Wigan and is regarded as a bloody legend. Wilf Rosenberg, Bok centre of 1955 was another, and Wilf later became a world-class boxing promoter in the 1970′s for top champions like Arnold Taylor and Pierre Fourie.
21 Apr 2006, 05:06 am
Tackler
Don’t forget Tana Umaga and Jonah Lomu, they too were league players before making the switch over to make very successful careers in the union code.
21 Apr 2006, 14:56 pm
tackler i think that is slowly changing with more public school players breaking into pro rugby. Gerrard, george smith, are wallabies who didn’t go to private schools.
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