NSW may release Hewat early
NSW may release Hewat early
Sunday, April 22, 2007
The Waratahs may consider granting Peter Hewat a release from the final year of his contract should the champion point scorer wish to pursue a big-money move overseas.
Hewat's forgettable Super 14 season continued on Saturday night when he missed with a conversion attempt that, had it been successful, would have given the Waratahs a morale-boosting comeback victory over the Highlanders at Aussie Stadium.
Alas, for the second time in a month, Hewat hooked his shot at glory, leaving the Waratahs second-from-bottom in a wooden-spoon battle with Queensland after falling 26-25 to the visiting New Zealanders.
It was an unfortunate finish for Hewat, whose two late tries and 20-point haul on the night had actually put the Waratahs in a winning position after they trailed 26-6 with 13 minutes remaining.
Hewat, the competition's leading point scorer in 2005 and second on NSW's all-time point scorers' list behind only Matthew Burke, missed a sitter against the Crusaders four weeks ago and probably can't wait for the Waratahs' campaign to be over.
But coach Ewen McKenzie refused to blame the misfiring fullback for NSW's latest heartbreak in a season laced with disappointments.
"Goalkicking's like lineout throwing, there's no joy or love in it. Everyone just expects you to do it really well," McKenzie said today.
"He's kicked a heap of goals from the sideline for us this year and he's kicked a lot of goals from further out than he's ever kicked them before, so he's actually kicked a lot of tougher kicks than I ever thought he would this year.
"But he's missed some of the easier ones, which has been ironic. I wouldn't say that was an easy kick [against the Highlanders], so I wasn't sitting there thinking this is a gimme."
Having been continually overlooked for Wallabies selection since bursting onto the Super rugby scene in 2004, Hewat's fading hopes of breaking into the Test arena have all but evaporated this season, prompting speculation he may look to end his career in Europe.
In France, the 29-year-old could earn three to four times as much as the $150,000 a season he makes at the Waratahs.
At 34, George Gregan will pocket €400,000 ($653,000) for a six-month stint with Toulon after completing his Wallabies commitments at this year's World Cup and Hewat's goalkicking makes him an equally valuable commodity.
While McKenzie indicated he would prefer Hewat to stay and honour his contract, he said the Waratahs also needed to be fair to the player.
"There's a human element in all this," McKenzie said. "I don't think you want to be too bloody-minded about it.
"We've always had a philosophy to try to develop players for the national team and if it becomes clear that someone's never going to play for the national team ... and we're not talking about a 20-year-old here.
"We're talking about a guy that's [almost] 30-plus and there's some big opportunities for him.
"He's had really serious offers thrown at him from overseas and he's spurned those over the last couple of years - and rightly so because we've had him on contract.
"We'll just see what the lie of the land is come Wallabies selection time."
While Hewat's future remains uncertain, the Waratahs were thrilled today to have re-signed young Test prop Benn Robinson for another three seasons.
Robinson's signing comes hot on the heels of the retention of fellow Wallabies Lote Tuqiri, David Lyons and Brett Sheehan.
NSW's priorities now are to retain Morgan Turinui:iconrofl: , Al Baxter:iconrofl: , Matt Dunning:iconrofl: and Dean Mumm (fair enough ;) ).
AAP
