More Lote madness

Lote Tuqiri has learned his lessons. Give him one more chance and we might see some improvements in the next couple of weeks. After all he is just a human being. Learn from the mistakes.

I think that there is a selection of points here , as previously stated there is a durth of talent in the back three. This is a game of 15 people per side , who need to have trust , belief and the ability to perform at this level. I am constantly umfounded that Lote ( although I love The Fitz FIles name for LT Lotsa Tequila ) is a definate first pick at 11, why he has never has to continue to earn his opportunities(ala Gerrard et al) I am one who definately does not doubt his raw talent , however what I do question is his commitment to his team mates , how can you continue to trust a fellow team-member who lets everybody down like this . This is the biggest issue here , although we obviously didnt need him on Saturday night and perhaps we dont need him permantly . However he does have plenty to offer but must get his commitment right , and turning up or not turning up to training as he is still pissed is not accepatble .

and NOW wendell has chimed in and told us that lote is being made a scapegoat by the ARU - presumeably in much the same way HE was, as he's already stated. of course there's no mention of previous indiscretions. i'd like to actually KNOW what happened in south africa that resulted in henjak being sent home - what he did must have been really terrible if it was worse than anything that either sailor OR tuquri had been doing at the time. or was he the REAL scapegoat so the expensive league imports could keep their jerseys?!?hmmmm...

LT's days in rugby may be numbered but the money spent in getting him rogers and sailor over to union wasn't a complete waste of money. the rugby context when they switched over was dour. it was the world cup victory hangover. the wallabies had few options to score and the waratahs were hopeless. support for the game was stagnate and the game needed a shot in the arm. these guys were just that. not to mention the body blow the defections inflicted on the rugby league. there was a time when most highlghts from wallabies and nsw games involved at least one of these three in some way. it was an attacking quick fix and it worked. we almost won that 2003 world cup and they were all in the team. the problem is the RU persisted with them. they served their purpose and the RU had plenty of time before this world cup to blood some real rugby players and decided against it. every cent spent on them since 2003 has been a waste not for their form or lack there of but for the oppurtunity cost of employing these now old footballers ie namely the development and encouragement of the next stars who we are not seeing

I notice that Lote supporters quote his ability in defence, his threat to opposition players is obvious, the league drawcard at the box office and his bullocking runs are a joy to behold. But wait are we not discussing a winger and what is it we want? I would suggest that individual tries and finishing off others great work is what we want. Do we measure our props by the number of passes and kicks they make - - - opps sorry I have slipped into Eddie Jones territory.

I may be sounding a bit flippent but I have assumed that Lote DIDN"T drive to the training ground or should I be corrected??

It's ironic that on the eve of the third State of Origin match, Lote Tuqiri was banned for two tests and fined $20,000 for failing a breath test for alcohol at training the Monday after the MCG test against the All Blacks. Ironic because when Tuqiri was involved in a Cape Town night club incident with Wendell Sailor in July 2005 Sailor told reporters they wouldn't have been out drinking so hard before a State of Origin match.

The inference from Sailor's remark was that the 'leaguies' did not put the same priority on the value of rugby tests as they put on State of Origin matches.

Of the three front line 'leaguies' to have made the expensive (for Australian rugby) switch to rugby, Mat Rogers and Wendell Sailor have gone. Only Tuqiri remains having negotiated a huge four-year deal from the ARU and the Waratahs earlier this year. It is obvious that rugby's investment in these players has been lost money. As Adam Ashley-Cooper showed on Saturday night, Australian rugby has good depth in wingers. Lachlan Turner is in the wings, as it were. And Scott Staniforth is waiting for a coach to give him the good run in the Wallabies he deserves.

Lote Tuqiri has been the best of the 'leaguies' at test level but this is not saying very much. He lacks real speed and a nous for the game, knowing when to run and when to kick. His passing and kicking game are ordinary. He is terrific under the high ball and from gaining kick-offs. And on Saturday night the Wallabies used him to good effect playing down the middle of the field.

It is interesting that four-man disciplinary committee recommended only a one-match ban and a $20,000 fine for Tuqiri. This suggests a sentiment to go easy on Tuqiri which came through with the over-generous settlement of his contract. John O'Neill, however, stepped in an insisted on the proper two match ban.

It's time that Lote Tuqiri having taken rugby's money does some effective running for it. O'Neill's intervention suggests that if the over-paid winger doesn't deliver during the Rugby World Cup tournament he may face questions about the validity of his contract arrangements.

There have been some good, spirited comments posted here. i just wanted to make a short comment on Lote's playing ability. One thing often overlooked is how good a defender he is. They stick him in with the forwards sometimes and he smashes big opposition forwards back on their behind. He is close the strongest in the weights room in the country and he knows how to use it when tackling. As to his transgressions, he must be feeling pretty low right now. By the time he turned up for training, around 1pm, he was still over 0.05. Given he had stopped drinking a long time beforehand, and is an athlete with a fast metabolism, how pissed was he when he went to bed?

Two quick comments - one to Searly, Chris Judd got it wrong, he did choose to become a role model, but because it was implied, not explicit, he missed it. Chris Judd, like Lote, and Sonny-Bill, and Wendell, and...so on, chose to become a professional sports person. To earn money from the paying public for playing the sport of his choice. By definition, his employer is the public, and it is they that must be kept happy. Ergo, the role model aspect is in-built. As Paul said above, many high profile roles have this form of consideration, from a company CEO to a Priest. Accept it, or find alternate means of income! Second,for Joshua Carmody - there is no doubting that Lote is a nice bloke. Same is true, believe it or not, of Sailor, and probably of Cousins, and Sonny-Bill, and pretty much any of the transgressing sports stars of late. That's not the point. The point is, they are high profile, highly paid people very much in the puclic eye and 100% dependent on the general public for their income. It's a case of biting the hand that feed you, isn't it? Doesn't mean you're no good, or a bad bloke, just means you're not gonna get fed by that hand any more, and deservedly so.

It is so frustrating to see this happen now, of all times. Just when the Wallabies are developing a great sense of team cohesion on the field. How can he be so STUPID? And to be in a World Cup year? What player, on that kind of money, in a World Cup year, wouldn't be completely obsessed with helping the team, to add to its strengths, to mentor the young ones coming through? I am reminded of the Andrew Flintoff madness before the cricket World Cup...that was pathetic and so is Lote. If I was Lote's captain I would be have ripped him to pieces and DEMAND to know, in front of the team, what he intends to do about his disgraceful attitude. Otherwise, piss off. Seriously. You're a part of the team or not. No grey areas, no 'yeah but', no Mr Individuals. Team Men, that's it. I've met Lote a number of times. He's truly a nice, humble, attentive guy. Clearly something's not right with him. I'll only say one thing in his defense; some of the vitriol and antagonistic rubbish that's written about his so called 'lack of ability', is absolutely false. And no doubt he hears it, he reads about it. Those surly commentators need to get a grip of themselves. If they were in a team with Lote they'd see the merit of his ability - his aggression, his willingness and physical ability are substantial - you can't coach it. The problem about his on field performance is a problem shared by the team he plays in each year - the Waratahs and Wallabies. No one expected Brian Lara to win the world cup for the West Indies, but you guys seem to expect Lote to solve the rubic's cube puzzle of Wallaby underperformance. Wake up. Seriously, get real. Fantasists. Maybe Lote is more sensitive to the sad lounge room bullies than he should be. There's certainly a lot of them. Wake up Lote!

Just a quick note re Searly's $20,000 point. If you earn $1,000,000 per year your weekly wage is approx $20,000 If you were an operator of machinery in a factory and turned up late hung over therefore unable to work safely, or a sales rep or driver of a company vehicle and lost your license you would be stood down for a week or loose that particuler job maybe overtime options bonus's etc. So I don't think the financial penalty was particularly low just relative

In response to Searly: I guess to complete a well-rounded debate, the Devil's Advocate response should be made. There is a sense of validity in the comments, but there are counter-arguements to this view. It is true, if I get up to any sort of mischief outside of my work place, I am not sanctioned by my boss. But then, I am not in the public eye, nor am i compensated anything like elite professional sportspersons for the inconvenience of being in the public eye. Except to my own kids, I have no moral obligation to do, or be seen to do, the'right thing' other than to act within the law and accepted community standards. It's all a risk & return trade-off... you take the big money, you take the big risk. Furthermore, Searly's analogy is surely applying a broad brush across all work places. For example, if a politician, the CEO of big company, a priest or a high profile public servant was caught in a compromising situation, albeit 'in their own time', I think in most cases there would be sanctions. "I didn't ask to be a role model" is a complete furphy. The question becomes 'do I want to play football or do I want to earn lots of money'? I you want to play football without being a role model, without the big dough, be an amateur and play park footy. If you want to earn the mega-bucks, accept the responsibilty that comes with it. To extend this line of thought to the ordinary workplace analogy, if one did not want the responsibilty and the stress and the scrutiny and the yada, yada, yada of being the CEO, don't take the big money and go and work in shop.

Dare I play devil's advocate? Here goes..... Let me start by saying I totally agree with the sentiment about recruiting high-profile league players to Rugby. It doesn't work, not because they're league players necessarily, but because they are fast-tracked into the national team without due process (e.g. actually picking people on playing ability rather than reputation or marquee value.....) But, what of the sanctions imposed for misbehaviour? I think the whole problem with this sort of thing across all sports is that for some reason the clubs and the codes have found themselves in a position that no other employers seem to have to deal with. Think about where you work. If the bloke who sits next to you gets blind on Saturday night and thumps someone, does your boss have to front the media and promise to put the bloke through rehab? Of course not. The reason being that when you're not at work, what you get up to isn't the boss's responsibility. Now if your Saturday night escapades mean you don't turn up to work, then fair enough the boss might want to take some action. But how many people do you know who have been fined $20,000 by their boss for turning up hungover to work? 20 Grand! Geez.... I know Lote has a history in all this and I know these things are probably written into their exorbitant contracts, but what ever happened to hauling the bloke into the boss's office and giving him a gob full? Why do we even need to find out about this stuff? I suppose we need to find out because if the playing group decided that he shouldn't play for breaking team rules, then we would all be wondering where Lote was this Saturday night. But why the clubs and the codes are always held to account for what some employee does when he's not at work is a mystery to me. As Chris Judd famously once said: "I didn't ask to be role model".

Not only has Vodafone not agreed to the contract yet but more importantly Lote hasnt signed it! We may find that JON will cancel this contract and start a new negotiation process that Lote won't like and he will go back to League. There he can play with Willie Mason, Sonny Boy Williamson, Wendell and the drink driving specialist from Canberra and all the other league guys he must admire so much as he follows their footprints so well. Huge pity really as he could have fitted into union really well had we got him at 20. Where is the 'No Dickheads' policy when you need it.

Agree absolutely with Farmer, but it may happen sooner than the RWC; I sense that it's coming to a head and may erupt sooner. Either way, good riddance. Plenty of good prospects in the clubs. And hopefully the final lesson about league players. They're not all undesirable types, but I believe that if they want to play rugby they should take the same route as any other player, ie by performing for a club.

I agree with the above comments. There are really 2 issues being discussed here: 1. player misconduct and discipline and 2. the policy of recruiting Rugby League players. Near as I can tell, there seems to be fairly widespread agreement on the policy of recruiting Rugby League players, and I can't add any more to that. As far as misconduct and discipline is concerned... so many high profile sportspeople, from high profile sports, attain notoriety for the wrong reasons and RU and its players are no exception. The difference seems to be that when discipline is handed out by RU, it is quick, decisive and confident. Player know where they stand if they commit any misdemeanour and their punishment should come as no surprise. This differentiates RU from the other football codes, where discipline for serious indescretions is often inadequate and no more than a token gesture, certainly very wishy-washy and sending the wrong messages to its fan base and the community at large. For engaging in serious sexual misconduct, illegal substance abuse, consorting with murderers and generally bringing their sport into disrepute, players in the other codes can look forward to not much more than a (figurative) slap on the wrist (to wit: Mason, Gower, Sargeant, SB Williams, Didak, Cousins et al). The ARU can hold its head up in this respect.

I agree with the various comments: LT's has a swollen head from all the hype and should be encouraged to go back to ARL. Why should he be given a gauranteed place in the Wallabies.

Great to see there is direction back at the ARU. A prediction - Lote will not see out his contract and will depart some time after the RWC. I sense the screws are being turned and it will become all too hard for Lote and a welcome development for the ARU. The contract has not been signed, Vodafone are yet to commit, Lote will continue to find it hard to stay within the lines and he will be belted harder and harder evertime he steps out of line. It will be a mutual agreement and everyone will say they just want to put it all behind htem and move on! Is this wishful thinking or do others also sense the tide has turned in relation to Lote.

While it is good to see decisive action instead of procrastination and delay, IMHO J O'N should have gone one step further and initiated renegotiation of LTs contract with more emphasis on an at-risk component. If LT doesn't like that he can go back to League. Alternately just rip it up and send him back to League, then reallocate the funds to development of emerging players, and to club competition where next years emerging players are currently playing. The next decision to make is to drop the League recruitment experiment. Like Ian, I believe that those who want to come will do so and won't need enticed by ludicrous amounts of cash. As a bonis they will probably be more motivated to make it work, and be more likely to produce results. When considering all this keep in mind that these top paid sports stars have a disposable MONTHLY income that approximates Australia's average ANNUAL salary. Surely with that kind of income comes a certain social responsibility?

I am so pleased that John O'Neill stepped in and corrected the number of suspended matches for Lote. That's the kind of control and consistency needed from the ARU administration. I am a bit surprised though that the disciplinary committee had given only a single match ban - given the already suspended two year sentence, surely a two match ban would have been automatic? It makes me wonder if the disciplinary committee treats Lote too softly - as befitting a "marquee player". Maybe that's why he continues to infringe.