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Mat Rogers is wrong when it comes to league's weight division discussion

11th February, 2018
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(Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
Expert
11th February, 2018
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Dual international Mat Rogers bobbed up on The Project last night to disagree with Russell Crowe’s suggestion junior rugby league should be weight divisions, not age.

It isn’t a new idea from Oscar-winning Crowe, a rugby league tragic who is part owner of the Rabbitohs.

I remember rugby league had weight competitions in the 1950s for kids, and it was a damn good idea.

I can’t remember when the concept was abandoned, but there have been numerous examples in recent times when huge kids have steamrolled opponents to score multiple tries.

Two years ago Meaalofa “Rayson” Te’o made headlines playing for a Victorian rugby league team in an under nine tournament in Canberra. Meaalofa was at least four times bigger than any opponent and his multiple tries won his team the tournament.

It was a stroke of luck none of his opponents ended up in hospital with serious injuries.

Kids deserve to enjoy their rugby league, not survive a war of attrition to kill their interest for all time.

So Russell Crowe is spot on reviving the concept, with Mat Rogers dead set wrong disagreeing.

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But it’s not the first time Rogers was wrong.

He made the dumbest call possible in the 2003 Rugby World Cup final in Sydney.

As Wallaby fullback, he had two options with just under two minutes to go in extra time with the score against England locked at 17-all.

He had a big boot so had he reefed the ball downfield, England wouldn’t have had enough time to get back into a scoring position, sending the decider into double extra time.

The alternative was the dumb option, kick the ball into touch from inside his own quarter which set up the inevitable.

And that’s exactly what Rogers did, handing England the lineout feed for play to move midfield, and Jonny Wilkinson to land the Rugby World Cup with a drop goal off his wrong foot, with 26 seconds left on the clock at the 100-minute mark.

For someone of Rogers’ vast experience as a Kangaroo and a Wallaby, it was unforgiveable.

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Fast forward to last night’s discussion where he never had to battle size early in his career.

He was big enough to be able to compete as a kid, so he sees nothing wrong with the status quo despite size can be crippling.

But I’ll give Mat Rogers a tick for one comment he made last night.

“I played a lot of rugby league for and against Preston Campbell, and Allan Langer,” Rogers said.

“If weight was the go, both would have spent their entire careers playing against 12-year-olds”.

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