'Sayonara': Marika Koroibete makes his Japanese departure official

do you mean Michael Hooper? The bloke who was voted the player of the recent series by people on this site? The bloke with the biggest motor in Australian Rugby? Yes, you're right (and the past 4 Wallaby coaches got it terribly wrong), he's overpaid and overrated.

Disagree. Finances in France and England are actually going backwards. Salary caps are being reduced. Japan is a different beast tho

Thanks fiwiboy.

No stand down. Can only switch if he plays Olympic qualifier sevens

Five years stand down?

It's getting too difficult to compete with Jap and Euro markets. $1.4mil for Patrick Tuipolutu and he is at best 3rd rated lock in NZ. Both NZ and Aus should count themselves lucky that Jap clubs are offering 1 year contracts for them to earn good coin. Euro clubs don't do 1 year contract, its always multiyear. Japan will head down that path soon, that's when the real trouble starts for Aus and NZ. I think Super Rugby should be scrapped or at least merged with Japanese competition. Create an IPL style big money tournament with players from Aus, NZ, Jap and other internationals auctioned. Any player playing in tournament is available for ABs/WBs selection. The good thing about the Japanese season is it aligns with Super Rugby season. Australia can re-start it's NRC and NZ already have their NPC for respective domestic comps to run either in parallel or later in the year. There's a lot of calls for Au/NZ Super Rugby comp with free flow of players between the countries however that's just wasting of time, Japanese wages will be higher.

Ouch this will hurt. Fingers crossed he will be back in time for the next World Cup. Gives us something to think about now as who will need to step up and fill his shoes. You’d think it would be Kellaway at the Rebels but not so sure at wallaby level. Korobeti has been freakish in the first two test, he has incredible work rate as a winger. So Koroibete will play out the season but if we get a spring tour in who do you pick when his not available. I’ve been critical of our back three in the recent test series. They did not work as a combination, by playing to much rugby at the wrong ends of the pitch. I thought Banks would be the general back there, I don’t know if it was a lack of communication or lack of brain power but either way every time our back three were turned over it was easy points to the opposition. I’m already hearing the drums, you have to pick Vunivalu but only if he has someone with half a brain and a motor mouth inside him. Wright for me was the big let down, freakish, thought he had better good vision for the but had the blinkers on and so flopped and played his way out of the side. Daugunu, well I took up drinking and smoking when he was picked for the last test. This bloke can do anything on his day. He is also like my hot water system at the moment hot and cold. So would a back three of Vunivalu, Banks and Hodge work. Before another one says it, yes Hodge, he may not be the most gifted player however he has rugby smart. Can they work together. Maybe Banks and Hodge can swap and change on the pitch, don’t care as long as Hodge is making the calls. Banks is a great finisher and his got a good boot, makes the odd tackle but that’s it. Be interesting to see how he goes with Jesse Mogg back next year. Petaia is returning from injury. Another freak with a rugby ball in his hands. But you know what I want him to play a full season of super dooper rugby at 15 before I’d give him a crack or I will never break this drinking and smoking habit. Rugby can be like playing chess and you certainly need the right pieces to move forward. Playing 1 ex league player on the wing worry’s me at times because kicking is not a natural instinct for them. Playing two ex league players on each wing like we did in the first two tests without a strong influence or voice, we nearly shot ourselves in the head. We got lucky Koroibeti he was a freak but now is the time to apply some thought as to who will replace him.

Contracts can be drafted accordingly. As long as World Rugby mandates it then fine. A player like Tate wouldn't command $1 million, that's for blokes like I mentioned. IMO, Tate, early in his career but a lot of potential would be at the minimum level now, say $500k. It's about financially supporting the Unions which develop the player.

This could lead to more speculative signing of younger talent. Take a Tate McDermont, he looks to have a good career in front of him for the Wallabies. Currently, he doesn’t have many caps, doesn’t meet any criteria for overseas selection. If I’m a Japanese club, I’m thinking, if we sign him now we can get him cheap and not lay RA a $1m signing fee which if we left it it a few years we would.have to pay. The cost/benefit analysis may work against RA if they tried a few like that. Also, RA sign these guys to contracts, once the contracts run out, players are free agents. RA can’t own them In perpetuity.

While I’m loathe to use a slippery slope argument, I think it applies here. Where do you draw the line? First, we don’t pick ANY overseas players. Ok, now we need Matt and Drew, ok let’s make a new rule… we just need a catchy name? Now, we have too many overseas who don’t meet the Giteau benchmark. Let’s just choose 5. Later, well, we actually need about 7 of the overseas guys, let’s up the limit to 10. Etc, etc. It does run the risk of producing a product, and exporting it, but not getting paid. As Bobby pointed out, Unions have coached and developed these players, increasing their ‘value’, just so they can get lured away by big money that the Union currently doesn’t see. I’m not a fan of the unions getting paid a signing fee, but there must be a return on the investment somewhere.

It's a shame we are losing Marika. Great player. It's also a shame that home unions like Australia, SA, NZ etc "lose" players they develop and actually make them "worth" more by wearing respective national colours. All Unions should be able to demand a transfer or release fee (say a million bucks for blokes like Marika, Kerevi, Arnold, Latu etc) IF they have played for the national team in the last 2 years. Exceptions to the transfer rule are players covered by Giteau Law and /or, players 30 years or older.

Yeah, imagine Argentina or Brazil not picking Messi or Neymar cos they play in Europe.

Eventually you are going to have to reduce it to zero, because the disparity in finances with Europe and Japan is only gonna grow and players will leave younger. This is what we've been watching for years.

I disagree, I think we need to keep it but relax the Giteu rule to 50 caps.

We need to reduce it to 50 caps. Marika for example would be a year away from reaching 50 caps. It’s much easier to lure him to stay when the carrot of being able to continue to play for wallabies when he eventually goes overseas in years to come is there. Same would apply for Kerevi and co.

Good luck and best wishes. Any rugby player who uses "whilst" in their written expression is a scholar, gentleman, and asset to the Code. Go well.

Let the lads play. Pick overseas players. It’s ok. Rugby is pro. Gone are the days.

Big loss. Australia’s best player gone. Hope he’s back for the next World Cup. Good luck to him.

We cant maintain picking players purely based in Australia. Our stars are still leaving year by year. Maybe a quota of selecting 5 players from overseas to keep the Wallabies competitive. We can no longer compete with overseas money

I don't get why the prohibition on selection of overseas players is not simply age-barred. You only get picked up to (say) age 25 of playing at home. Once 26, you're welcome to go offshore. Rational approach for a 24 or 25 year old is stay home for another year or 2 b4 taking $$$ overseas. We retain most new players at home, which for a fan is often most interesting part of the game. And we can follow players we know via Stan, and be delighted to see them visit here for tests. Cheers KP