Rugby Rejects Thriving in League

It's nice to know that old washed up has-been Rugby players are finding in Rugby League a comfortable and lucrative retirement home.

For example Matt Rogers is still hobbling around the nation's Rugby League fields many years after his successful Rugby career ended. Being held together by scar tissue and reputation is evidently enough to earn selection for the Gold Coast Titans match after match.

 Similarly Lote Tuquiri has been a revelation in Rugby League. Too old and too slow for the Wallabies and unable to score tries for the Waratahs to the extent the ARU leapt at the opportunity to sack him, Tuquiri is a try-scoring machine for the Wests Tigers.

And Wendell Sailor has become almost as big a media celebrity as his well proportioned backside was in the two years he played League after a long nose-candy induced break. Evidently all the media training the Reds and Waratahs gave him is paying off handsomely.

The irony of course is that with Rugby being a productive breeding ground for Rugby League players the game of Rugby League gets the most benefit. Tuquiri is bringing spectators through the gate, Sailor is rescuing a comatose Footy Show and Rogers is supporting the medical community of the Gold Coast almost as much as he supports the faltering Titans back line.

Meanwhile:
  • Mark Gasnier is being touted as the player every Australian Super Rugby team wants only two years after being hounded out of Australia after all his fired up (see number 24 in this link) disgressions with St George;
  • Craig Gower is directing the Italians aroud the Rugby field only a couple of years after his alcoholism led to Penrith tearing up his contract; and
  • Sonny Bill Williams is being almost offered a choice between four nations for the next Rugby World Cup after storming out on the Bulldogs.
All three have found salvation in Rugby, cleaned up their acts and come out the end as better people and better players.

While Rugby Union has had its fair share of home grown quokka-kicking, taxi smashing, head butting problem children, in Rugby Union, League players have thrived in a culture that has nurtured talents and developed skills on and off the field.

The arguments about which is the better game are endless (and great blog material) but Rugby is clearly the place to go to clean up your act and set yourself up for life, not the Rabbitohs.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Has anyone else read those What Happens Next" HSBC adds in the paper for the warratahs. Is it just me or does everyone else think "They drop the ball".....
Anonymous said…
Good luck with Brian Waldron then.