Jarryd Hayne is officially a Fijian rugby union representative. And Australian rugby fans should be jumping for joy right now.
Hayne made his rugby sevens debut at the London Sevens in what was largely a mixed performance. He did some good things and did some bad things, and without a doubt looked like a deer in the headlights.
By representing Fiji at the highest level, Hayne is no longer able to represent Australia in an international rugby contest, be it sevens or the 15-man variety.
And now that he can’t play for the Wallabies, the Australian Rugby Union won’t be willing to stump up extra cash to lure him to a Super Rugby franchise once his Olympic jaunt comes to an end. And that is why we should be happy.
As a result, it will instead be a three-horse race for those wishing to hire his services for however long he decides to stick around at the next stop on the ‘Hayne Global Sports Tour’. Those three horses are European rugby, Japanese rugby and the National Rugby League.
I am happy for those three groups to splash the cash to secure one of the most talented athletes in the Australian modern sporting era. I just don’t want the ARU doing the same. And now that he has represented Fiji, the ARU won’t be making it a four-horse race.
It goes without saying that Hayne is a freakishly talented athlete. You could have given him a list of sports at the age of 15 and told him to pick one. He would have gone professional in whatever sport he chose, barring possibly synchronised swimming.
But, as I have been told my entire life, talent isn’t everything. To be a professional athlete, talent can only get you so far. Talent got Hayne to the NFL, but it was the mental side of things that let him down. Yes, he had the drive to play in the NFL, but he didn’t have the drive or the passion to become a truly great American Football player.
The stories that have emerged from the Sydney Roosters over the past week paint an even bleaker picture for Hayne as a team player. The Roosters, the frontrunners for Hayne’s signature in the NRL, ruled themselves out of the race for Hayne because of character issues.
There were reports of him flat out refusing to partake in drills while playing for the Eels if he didn’t agree with them.
That doesn’t sound like someone who I would want to play alongside. And it doesn’t sound like someone the ARU should want wearing a gold jersey, which thankfully is no longer a possibility.
Rugby union in Australia is currently in a state of flux, the team delivered some outstanding on-field performances in last year’s Rugby World Cup and coach Michael Cheika looks to be working his magic on the men in gold. However, off the field, the sport is still struggling for exposure, Bill Pulver is a walking negative headline and finances are incredibly tight.
Could you imagine the furor in club rugby land if Pulver threw millions towards Hayne just months after telling NSW club rugby teams that if he gave them money they would “piss it up against the wall”?
Yet, based on Pulver’s comments throughout the past week, the ARU was more than willing to welcome Hayne with open arms.
“He is an incredible athlete and it is only good for rugby to have him part of our game,” he gushed. “He would absolutely be welcome in Australia. He is a truly elite, international athlete, so we would love to have him.”
Hayne isn’t the sort of person we want representing our country. He has never played the game before and, rightly or wrongly, many within the wider public currently view him as a mercenary, jumping from job to job, wherever he can promote ‘Brand Hayne’ and his flashy new line of clothing.
From Michael Cheika’s perspective, he is constantly speaking of the importance of culture and having a good group of guys playing together, with each other, for each other. Based on what we’ve seen from Hayne over the past few years, he would require a significant character shift to fit in the culture that Cheika is attempting to build.
On the flipside, Hayne would without a doubt raise the profile of Australian rugby, just like Israel Folau did when he signed with the Waratahs in 2013. In saying that, many thought Karmichael Hunt would raise the profile of rugby in Australia, instead he has largely been a disappointment.
Even if Hayne does raise the profile of rugby in Australia, who’s to say he doesn’t just jump ship once he’s achieved his ‘lifelong dream’ of playing for the Wallabies. Just like he did with his lifelong dream of playing in the NFL and like he will after he achieves his lifelong dream of playing sevens for Fiji in the Olympics.
Look, if he has ten lifelong dreams, that’s fine. He can jump from sport to sport trying to achieve them. But from the Wallabies perspective, why bother investing millions of dollars into someone who is just going to leave after a season or two?
If the Wallabies are going to develop into a team that can actually challenge the All Blacks it can only be achieved through development. Not splashing money at a quick fix that may or may not work out. I know I would much rather the Wallabies develop a player that chose to play rugby because they have a burning passion and desire to represent the Wallabies and who will want to play rugby in this country for the next decade.
In his weekly column, Matt Burke put it best. “Surely the development of youth in Australia has to be the priority, and that comes from paying attention to and looking after the junior ranks and also club rugby, not recruiting or cherry-picking from rugby league.”
Thankfully Hayne has now represented Fiji and the chances of him playing for a Super Rugby club are effectively zero. Instead of wasting money on a free spirit who is only looking to check off another item on his sporting bucket list, the ARU will be forced to spend some money developing a homegrown superstar. And that can only be a good thing.
Lindsay Amner
Roar Guru
You can switch 7s teams under the Olympic rules by playing in Olympic qualifiying tournaments, and by doing so change your country of allegiance. So Tim Nanai-Williams was able to play 7s for NZ, then switch to 7s for Samoa; play enough Olympic qualifiying tournaments and by doing so made himself eligible for Samoa 15s at the RWC. This could be a path that Hayne could follow, but my understanding is that he couldn't do this until 2019 when the 7s series will again double as Olympic qualifying tournaments. If he was to play for Australia at 7s in several qualifying tournaments this would then make him eligible for Australia at both 7s and 15s. I don't think that the 7s series in other years will allow such qualifying, but happy to be proved wrong.
BrainsTrust
Guest
Australian Rugby Union was at its biggest point due to the world cup in 2003, but also getting three of the bigger names in rugby league. AT that high point there seeemed to be the thought they would do it on their own and anti rugby league hiring articles from Spiros Zavos,and making Tuqiri a scapegoat when he performed very well for most of his Wallabies career. Then after a while rugby reached thre doldrums they did an about face. and has turned back to this previous practice except they are outpriced and players stolen by European rugby. Karmichael Hunt and Folau they hired from AFL, after the AFL tried to use them for publicity. The AFL chose strange players to convert particularly Folau. I don;t see Hayne as being naturally talented, he fumbled away his NFL career, he is more a good athlete and evasive runner, the only other thing Hayne could do is push a bob sled given he is a fairly fast big guy. The thing that Hayne has that no one else has is he is now the Kim Kardashian of Australian sport in the north east. The SMH used to give rugby a lot more coverage, now it is like the Daily Telegraph mark 2 about 8 pages of league and rugby is lucky to get two pages at the back. Hayne seems to get more coverage than rugby does, so he is a big commodity in Australia, so it would have been wise for Australian rugby to throw money and lure him away from Fiji, also European rugby would not have much of a clue about him, so if he fails in Rio or doesn;t make it they won't have the megabucks lined up for him.
Markus
Guest
Physical strain has also increased substantially, as have major injuries such as ACL injuries. Moving forward the demands on the body will continue to increase, and player longevity will likely decrease in the same way that is has in the NFL.
peeeko
Guest
you realise after the initial onslaught this will all die off
peeeko
Guest
this is all pure speculation and assumes he wants to play 15 a side rugby. his last few decisions havent been about money
ukkiwi
Guest
Are you sure he can't play for Australia? Is this an World Rugby policy or an ARU policy? Belgium Tuitagaloa played for NZ 7's now plays for Samoa 7's and there's a guy (can't remember his name) who played for NZ 7's now playing for England 7's.
Loup
Guest
@KPM, who would you say are are the contenders for best attacking players in both codes of the past decade? How do you define an "attacking player"? Is this only a great ball-runner/finisher? Or someone with lots of different attacking weapons a la Dan Carter or Ben Smith or Nonu?
Loup
Guest
I imagine the ARU would have considered Haynes' value in a fairly broad sense, but may have come to the conclusion that the potential increases in revenue and share of the audience pie would probably be unlikely to offset the expense of winning a bidding war with the likes of Toulon. You're right, whichever team he plays for will get an enormous amount of additional publicity so will be able to jack up their sponsorship rates, in addition to increasing the broader interest in the game. So many NFL-neophytes suddenly began to pay attention the game when he jumped across, similar is happening with sevens.
Boz the Younger
Guest
Yeah, and it is like the mafia ... once you join "The Family" you can never leave ... (rolls eyes).
Loup
Guest
Hayne is doing what he can to maximise his earnings for the next few years. Training with the Fijian sevens gives him an opportunity to learn rucking, taking the ball into contact and other techniques and improve his fitness, improving his value in 15s rugby. Just training with the sevens is probably sufficient to get the cashed-up RU clubs circling. He will play for whichever club offers the highest salary in RL or RU (or NFL for that matter); he is ensuring that he is maximising the size of his pool of interested buyers. If he signs up with a RU club in say France he will of course be eligible to play international 15s rugby with Fiji. Pulver insinuated that Australian Rugby could have brought Hayne over in a heart-beat if they offered to pay him enough, so presumably Hayne would have been asking for a contract in a similar ballpark to what a club like Toulon or Racing would be prepared to offer. Although it would be wonderful to have Hayne playing rugby in Australia and eligible for the Wallabies, at the end of the day the ARU will get better bang for that buck elsewhere, even buying several young emerging NRL players with RU backgrounds would be a better way to spend that money. All in all it's a very shrewd move from Hayne to maximise his earnings as he approaches twilight of his playing career,
Boz the Younger
Guest
Yeah, and it's like the mafia ... once you are in "The Family" you can never leave ... (rolls eyes).
Tigranes
Guest
He also played for Australia in rugby league as well, the country he was born in and raised in and developed his rugby league in.
Tigranes
Guest
Will can play rugby as long as he keeps his old man away from the game.
John
Guest
Junior participation and key positional development at the Wallabies level is vital, but Australia does not have but "ample" talent in the backs. Who would make a world XV?
Dontcallmeshirley
Guest
ARU money would be wasted on outside backs from the NRL. The ARU have made several bad investments in the past just to get one up league and to try and increase the games profile. The Wallabies have ample talent to call on in the outside backs. These positions seldom determine the outcome of internationals.
grapeseed
Guest
“Surely the development of youth in Australia has to be the priority, and that comes from paying attention to and looking after the junior ranks and also club rugby, not recruiting or cherry-picking from rugby league.” Loved you in Bledisloe 1998 Mr Burke, but that is a false dichotomy. A less simplistic appreciation may be: • Hayne increases ticket sales by x%, leading to $x net direct gain and $y net indirect gain • Hayne increases Sunday newspaper presence from x articles to y articles each and every week • Hayne increases clicks on the Roar by x%, leading to direct and indirect gains for the Rugby industry and their advertisers, not to mention exposure to other articles by bringing in new readership, increasing awareness of rugby • Hayne increases Foxtel interest by x% especially when he’s on Rugby 360 • Hayne receives MSM general (non-sports) coverage at a rate of x many articles per week / month at a time where Rugby is fighting for exposure. All of this direct and indirect increase in dollars and exposure is good for the kiddies in the junior ranks Matthew, even if it “costs” one of the 30 people on Wallaby contracts and/or one of the hundreds of people on SR contracts some game time and dollars individually. It is not an either / or proposition. All assuming Hayne would be good enough to play rugby or indeed wanted to of course.
John
Guest
I watched all of the games mate. He was a promising young player though inferior to Hayne, Inglis, Folau, Hodges, Slater, Yow Yeh, Darius Boyd and Karmichael Hunt as pups. Now goes like a Ford Fiesta.
Joe
Guest
It' his choice, who he wants to play for.
kingplaymaker
Roar Guru
Maybe you didn't see Hopoate play those games. He is no Ford. I thin Hayne is the best attacking player in the world in either code over the past decade too, but I also think Hopoate is an outstanding talent and no Ford.
John
Guest
So good he wasn't picked for Australia at the end of the 2012 season, so amazing he wasn't honoured with any individual awards at the Dally M's and so extraordinary he didn't even win any club awards at Manly's end of season preso! Give it a rest Kingplaymaker....by the same age Hayne had won Eels Rookie of the Year, Dally M Rookie of the Year, Dally M Winger of the Year and NSW Origin Player of the Year. He'd represented the Prime Ministers XIII, NSW City, NSW in Origin and Australia a Test. One is a Ford, one is a Ferrari.