Bye bye, Lote, bye bye!
Roar Guru By LeftArmSpinner, 2 Jul 2009 LeftArmSpinner is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- Australian rugby, Lote Tuqiri, Rugby Union, wallabies
Lote Tuqiri has been sacked for disciplinary reasons after his latest indiscretion, the last in a long list of issues. It’s the culmination of a player with the potential for behavioral problems combined with being out of touch with a game that’s left him behind.
It is worth revisiting the more recent comments to confirm that this was a train wreck in front of our eyes. I have nothing new to say than I have already said in previous Roar articles, but these comments have a new meaning in the light of Tuqiri’s sacking and can kick off a new discussion.
Lets examine the recent posts in my recent Roar article about the Wallabies’ body language: “Tuqiri has problems in his mind. Last Saturday, with just the diminutive Gordon 15, Dave Harvey, to beat, he failed. Didn’t even get close. It’s all a bit sad really.”
Further, in another Roar article: “Mitchell can get to the try line, as can AAC, as can Hynes and as can Ioane and Turner. Lote wont back himself to finish a try with pace and determination. Frankly, take his inability to remove the weaknesses from his game that have been evident for at least four seasons, specifically:
* Cross field running,
* not backing himself on the outside of an opponent
* not drawing and passing
* not developing kicking skills
* not becoming able to play in other positions (such as Fullback and 13)
* frequent failure to recycle the ball
These are serious weaknesses that were hidden by a big salary and reputation, but compounded by timid coaches. Compare his body shape to when he first arrived in rugby. He is completely muscle bound.”
This closes the page on the purchasing of league stars with a view to convert them into rugby players when they don’t really want to. The jury is still out on Tahu, but the pressure is building on him as time goes on.
Barnes, Elsom and Cross are different because they were not new to rugby.
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- Australian rugby, Lote Tuqiri, Rugby Union, wallabies
July 2nd 2009 @ 8:29am
Bay35Pablo said | July 2nd 2009 @ 8:29am | Report comment
Mike, would this be an employment dispute or a contract dispute? We are getting into stuff well outside your usual shop assistant here.
I seem to recall some of his $1m contract was sponsorship and third party payments, so not all that money will necessarily go back in the player pot or be available to the ARU.
As far as future Wallabies picks – no guarantees. Future sponsorship? I think he had just about maxed that out.
This will not help the morale or loyalty of the rest of the players. it seemed he was well liked, and others have behaved just as badly.
So let’s review the legauies who came over for coin:
Rogers- Gone.
Sailor – Gone.
Tuqiri – Going.
I’ll back tahu because he seems to have come for the challenge not the coin.
July 2nd 2009 @ 8:41am
reds fan said | July 2nd 2009 @ 8:41am | Report comment
C’mon Mole… fill us in. What is this rumour??
July 2nd 2009 @ 8:42am
Brett McKay said | July 2nd 2009 @ 8:42am | Report comment
Pablo, the ARU are certainly calling it an employment dispute, judging by their lightly-worded statement last night:
“The employment contract of Lote Tuqiri has been terminated effective today. ARU has treated this issue as a standard employment matter.
“The ARU will not make any further comment on the matter as it may be the subject of legal proceedings.”
July 2nd 2009 @ 8:57am
Josh said | July 2nd 2009 @ 8:57am | Report comment
Unreal, they sack the player who get’s people through the gates, they had 47,000 to a test match, rugby is boring, 1 try in 80 mins, nobody cares about it, league gets a sell out to origin, tell me which is the far better game,
July 2nd 2009 @ 9:12am
Hoy said | July 2nd 2009 @ 9:12am | Report comment
Why do gate takings matter here? It is about a player who has supposedly buggered up according to the terms of his contract.
Forget that Lote was never that great at Rugby. If he breached his contract, why should they keep him after the chances he has had. I am fairly sure that after the thing with Matt Dunning, he was on a last warning. Now I don’t know what has happened here, but they surely wouldn’t sack him without looking at consequences.
Josh by your statement, if the Taliban or Jack the Ripper pulled crowds, they should play? People pullers don’t always win games.
July 2nd 2009 @ 9:15am
MikeN said | July 2nd 2009 @ 9:15am | Report comment
The skill level in the origin game did not warrant a sell out. The skill level in the Wallabies match deserved more. The number of tries should not be the gauge on how good a game is.
Lote has been playing so poorly the last couple of seasons that I do not see why anyone would bother even turning on their TV to watch him. He has not run hard and straight of a couple of years. Any half decent rugby player can tackle a guy who has stopped or is ruinning across field.
If he has once again gone outside player protocols, then bye bye Lote. He will land on his feet somewhere else, so he is OK, just a hit to his ego.
July 2nd 2009 @ 9:35am
Hoy said | July 2nd 2009 @ 9:35am | Report comment
He was signed to this mammoth contract on the back of not scoring a try for a year. How does that make sense? The signing originally was about the ARU getting one up on NRL. I think it was madness, however I am not a fan of Lote anyway.
Lots of things don’t add up with Lote.
Why did they sign him then to a long term deal for so much, when he was in a massive form slump that lasted over 12 months before the signing?
Why did they take him on the tour last year to Europe when he only played the Bar Bar’s game?
Why was he left out this year, if for no other reason than Robbie Deans bows to no man (no matter what his salary), and recognises talent in other wingers that far outweighs any talent Lote has.
July 2nd 2009 @ 9:45am
Rickety Knees said | July 2nd 2009 @ 9:45am | Report comment
I hope that this now shuts the door on buying high profile League players. Wisdom in hindsight would ask “what return on investment have the Rogers, Sailors and Tuqiri’s provided Australian Rugby. I don’t know what the sum of their contracts are worth but I guess it would be $10M+ – would that money not have been better spent on developing a national club competition?
July 2nd 2009 @ 9:55am
stillmissit said | July 2nd 2009 @ 9:55am | Report comment
The other part to this is the non selection of Tahu, both he and Lote have been playing club rugby. Now I think Tahu is a fine man but I did think it was strange that both of them were not wanted particularly as Tahu was improving markedly.
Just another conspiracy theory but there are no rumours about this sacking at all and I thought something would be out this morning.
Hope Lote is gone and loses the legal battle as well. Maybe this final nail in the old chestnut ‘NRL players will kill it in rugby’ is dead. They are fundamentally different games, you need to be a young leaguey to make the transition or have played earlier in your career.
Lote’s huge salary renegotiation is the responsibility of Gary Flowers and NSW rugby, stupidly supported by John Connolly and others.
July 2nd 2009 @ 10:05am
Worlds Biggest said | July 2nd 2009 @ 10:05am | Report comment
Josh – the big crowd ( not a sell out ) at Origin got to see probably the worst half of Origin football ever by NSW, it was quality stuff. Dropped balls, soft or non existent defence, wayward passing etc.. And you reckon League is the better game ??. Sure the Wallabies v France game overall wasn’t a great spectacle but the skill level, defence and physicality was just far superior to what NSW served up a few days earlier.