SPIRO: The ARU should forget about ageing league stars

The matter of Karmichael Hunt and his Notice to Appear in Court on March 5, 2015 will be resolved in the courts, and rightly so.

But the context of the former league star and aspiring AFL player being offered a lucrative contract to play for the Reds and his immediate promotion to a leadership position in the franchise deserves full discussion in rugby circles.

I am with Matt Burke, who wrote in Sunday’s Sun-Herald that the ARU has invested in “fool’s gold” in chasing league stars. He argues that “there has to be a shift of chasing players from other codes’ and a concentration ‘on having an internal focus’”.

He wants the money spent (or misspent) on league players “with an inflated price tag” to be invested on the development of the game. His point is that the ARU should use its money to “nurture the kids in the grassroots areas and make sure these kids have heroes again at the national level”. Right on!

The case of Greg Inglis was all over the sports media during the weekend. Apparently, Inglis, a predicted future rugby league Immortal, is putting out feelers to play rugby, presumably for a cash-rich French club. There is a media push for the ARU to enter the bidding war for his services.

My advice to the ARU about trying to sign up Inglis is along the lines of Punch magazine’s famous (or infamous?) advice to people wanting to get married: don’t!

If Inglis did make the jump to Australian rugby, it would only be for a year or so. It would not be because of some burning ambition to play for the Wallabies. It would be all about money and the access to even more money in France.

The ARU has been down this path before with ageing league stars who are deemed to have a certain charisma. The case of Wendell Sailor is illustrative. The ARU paid $700,000 for his service, which was far more than he was making in league. And far more than he was worth playing rugby.

It took him seven Super Rugby matches before he scored his first try. Then during the 2003 Rugby World Cup tournament, the Wallaby coach Eddie Jones played him ahead of Joe Roff in the final against England. Sailor played six matches in the tournament and scored only one try. It was on his flank that England scored a crucial try in the final.

Then in 2006, while playing for the Waratahs, Sailor was stood down for being tested positive for cocaine use.

What was surprising in the career of Sailor and the very short career of Hunt in rugby is the perception in high places that they somehow were very much better players and leaders, in the rugby game, than real champions like Joe Roff.

I think part of this attitude relates (especially in Australia) to what may be called a cultural cringe by rugby people towards league. The notion implicit in the phrase ‘the greatest game of all’ is that the players of this game are the greatest players in the rugby and league codes.

When Sailor converted to rugby, Roy Masters wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald that he would create records with his try-scoring ability. His rationale, which was wrong, was that tackling was nowhere near as ferocious or as accurate in rugby as it was in league.

What nonsense! In one of his first Super Rugby matches, Sailor had a one-on-one on Chris Whitaker about 20 metres away from the Waratahs try line and with no one else in the play. Whitaker knocked over Sailor as easily as a bowling ball knocking over a single pin.

This notion of the inherent superiority of the league player came through, too, with the way the Reds promoted Hunt immediately to a leadership position. He even captained the Reds for a time on the field, even though it was clear he had a lot to learn about the complexity of rugby (chess) compared with simplicity of league (checkers).

This is not an argument for rugby not to buy league players. But pick younger players who will improve and who want to make a career in the game, rather than consolidate their fortune.

Rocky Elsom made a terrific transfer from league to rugby. The Waratahs are on to a good thing, too, with their latest convert from league, the huge powerhouse runner Taqele Naiyaravoro, the scorer of two tries in his side’s tough 38-28 victory over the Rebels at Melbourne.

Naiyayavoro is young. He has his best rugby years ahead of him. He brings something quite different from the usual run of wingers to the field, power and pace.

He made the same mistake as Israel Folau in one of his first rugby matches of pushing a ball dead and was surprised to be penalised. But like Folau he will learn the lesson that the key to rugby is that the soft options are generally either not legal or get you and your team into trouble.

We are yet to see teams try to turn Naiyaravoro around with long kicks out to his wing. But so far, so good for him. He has added to the fire power of the Waratahs and he can only improve on his already impressive start.

I’ve been critical in the last couple of years of the Reds, and of their coach Richard Graham. But I was thrilled for the franchise when the Reds toughed out an 18-6 victory over the Western Force on a soggy Suncorp Stadium.

About 14,200 spectators braved the elements to see their team grind out a victory. Given the disruption before the game of the Hunt matter and then the loss of James O’Connor, who could not survive the pre-match exercises and drills, it was an impressive effort from the Reds.

Nick Frisby filled in, more adequately than Hunt at Melbourne, for the number 10 jersey. He stood too deep. But there was an element, or so it seemed to me, of Will Genia passing well behind the advantage line in forcing Frisby to stand where he did.

Another reason why the Reds win was well deserved was because they at least tried to play some rugby. The Force, as they did against the Waratahs, infuriated everyone, except perhaps their supporters, with their ‘win-ugly’ style that has been imposed on the side by Michael Foley.

Foley almost destroyed the Waratahs franchise with this style. He and the Force had a great year last season by playing positive, ensemble rugby, rather like the way the Rebels are playing under Tony McGahan. In going down to the Waratahs, the Rebels scored four tries. This augurs well for the Rebels as the season goes on.

This season, though, the old bad Foley tendency towards trying to avoid playing any rugby seems to have re-emerged with the way the Force are playing. My fearless prediction is that if Foley continues with this ‘win-ugly’ (which is really a lose-ugly) method, the Force will not build on last year’s successes.

There was a period, for instance, when the Reds were camped on the Force try line and scrum after scrum went down. The Force were penalised four times. The scrums were re-set several times more. Finally, when a new series of scrums started, Nick Briant did what he should have done much earlier and gave a penalty try against the Force.

This should have happened minutes earlier. The Force were not interested in scrumming properly. They went down, niggled at the contact and generally wasted time in the hope that somehow the Reds, or the referee, would make a mistake and get them out of their tight situation.

SANZAR is on the verge of selling the 2016 and onwards Super Rugby tournament to Fox Sports for a very significant lift in total revenues paid out. The organisation needs to come down hard on coaches like Foley who have no interest in the game as a spectacle.

Like last week, I took a hammering in the tipping competition. But I think this round cleared up a couple of matters.

The Waratahs are still off their best but now after their shock loss a week earlier to the Force they look like a finals side.

The Crusader are still off their best and with some of their All Blacks still to return. But they are on track for another finals series.

The Highlanders lack the pack to win consistently. But their backs can be explosive.

The Chiefs and the Brumbies played a tremendous match at New Plymouth. This was of Test match intensity. Both teams and their coaches emerged with a great deal of credit from the entertaining contest. Both teams are finals bound.

The Bulls look to be even more one-dimensional (perhaps half-dimensional) than ever before. The Hurricanes even disrupted their lineout. The notion that 37-year-old Victor Matfield is still good value, on the field, is ludicrous. But then so is the notion that incessantly kicking the ball to your opponents is the way to win matches.

The Hurricanes are the team that has shown significant improvement so far this season. John Plumtree has the forwards working hard and well. The backs are world-class. Generally there is far more method and less madness in the Hurricanes play that suggests they are in for one of their better seasons.

Few teams from Australia or New Zealand win both their matches in South Africa, as the Hurricanes have.

The Stormers made hard weather of beating a Blues side that played for nearly 50 minutes with 14 men after Hayden Triggs was correctly given a red card for hitting an opponent in the face. Just why professional athletes indulge angry stupidities like this is beyond me.

Watching the Blues indicates that the cattle is there for a good season. But there have to be question marks over Sir John Kirwan’s coaching abilities to get the best out of his players.

The two top South African sides appear to be the Stormers and the Sharks, who are a much stronger side with Bismarck du Plessis leading from the front.

The cream is starting to rise, slowly perhaps, to the top.