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Mark Gasnier a Wallabies World Cup bolter
By Jim Tucker
July 17, 2008 12:00am
MARK Gasnier has walked out on this year's rugby league World Cup for a French finishing school which can groom him to be a shock Wallaby weapon at rugby's 2011 World Cup.
Dual international Lote Tuqiri yesterday predicted talent-hungry Super 14 sides would be "closely monitoring" the stylish centre's code-switch.
New ARU high-performance manager David Nucifora revealed he would keep tabs on Gasnier by requesting game tapes through Ewen McKenzie, the former NSW coach who will guide him at his French club.
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Gasnier wouldn't be able to get into the kangaroos rugby league international team on his form with the likes of inglis and isarel falou so what makes him a bolter for the Wallabies in 4 years time...
get nicked Gasnier..
As the raging bull (gordon tallis) why keep a player who is looking for money and not the develop of the game..
Gordan Tallis makes up crap all the time now that he is in the media, if he got offerered the kind of money Gaznier did when he played he would have gone straight away.
I think Gaznier will be good enough to make the wallabies squad after a few years of union, thats if he ends up in super14.
I cant wait to see him play.
I think this is a load of tripe. There's plenty of competition in the Centres in Aussie Rugby, he'll be 30 (or so) by 2011 why the hell would we blood a 30 year old rookie in the biggest cometition in the world.
C'mon the![]()
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Gasnier is all hype and nothing else.
He's got one little ineffective shimmy (very much like Quade Copper's shimmy that goes nowhere), and when he sprints, his head goes back and forth like when a chicken runs. Ben Pomeroy wrapped him up easily when the sharks beat the dragons earlier this year, and Ben is pretty unco.
Just what the Wallabies need another ex rugby league back, remember the world cup they got knocked out by a better forward pack. The forwards win the game and the backs just decide by how much!!
Why people are so fascinated with ex league players is beyond me. I think the whole ELV thing is a plight by the IRB to make the game more like league. Our game isn't broken so why are we trying to fix it?
I got Setanta sports on Fox and it was much nicer to watch the European game as well as the ELV's in action with this year's Super 14. The European games were much better, all the ElV's teach young players is to hang onto the ball and it will only be a free kick anyway.
converts grrr.. cept ours of course![]()
Chuck Norris has the greatest Poker-Face of all time. He won the 1983 World Series of Poker, despite holding only a Joker, a Get out of Jail Free Monopoly card, a 2 of clubs, 7 of spades and a green #4 card from the game Uno.
I prefer to think of Crossy as 'coming home' after some time in the NRL wilderness (Waverly isn't exactly a Mungo school)
Because they are such great players, because those of us who follow both codes like to see how they will go and because they bring some Mungo fans with them. Lote Tuqiri, Brad Thorne, Mat Rogers, Wendell Sailor, Henry Paul, Jason Robinson, Andy Farrel, Ryan Cross, Timana Tahu. Can anyone name the last RL convert who did not make it to top level Rugby? If some of you lot don't like Rugby League, fair enough. But do you really imagine the likes of Robbie Deans, Ewen McKenzie, Graeme Henry would be picking these players if they were no good? Wake up and smell the coffee.
The majority of Australia's best Rugby players are playing Rugby League. That's why they get into top level Rugby so quickly. The ones who have "converted" to RU are NOT even the best RL has to offer. The likes of Israel Folau, Greg Inglis, Billy Slater and plenty of others would probably convert just as well. Some of the top AFL coaches have said they could go to AFL just as easily. Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams actually tried to recruit Lote after the 2003 RWC. They are among the most athletic football players in the country. End of story.
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
Point taken, isn't the last rugby convert not to make it to the top level going to be Gasnier or is that pre empting it??
As for league they are two very different codes we can agree on that I'm sure but it's hypothetical to think how other players who are good at running into stationary targets and hardly pass the ball each week would transfer over to RU.
Pick up the ball run into the defender, do this 4 or 5 times and then I'll kick it in the air, get's boring very quickly!!!
You said it not me.![]()
But come on, can you name the last one so far?
Two thirds of the Celts and the English so scared of the ELV's turning the game into RL that they might not agree with you.As for league they are two very different codes we can agree on that
You obviously have not much time for RL, that's your choice and fair enough. But on the evidence so far it's not that hypothetical, if your objective about it. I like 'em both and understand them. Each has those aspects. It's what all the pundits refer to as winning the ruck or laying a platform for the pretty boys. Don't mislead yourself that RU is the more free flowing. The "ball in play" stats tell the truth there. There are great matches and boring ones in both.but it's hypothetical to think how other players who are good at running into stationary targets and hardly pass the ball each week would transfer over to RU.
You could easily be talking about the game plan of the Argetinian, Italian for English Rugby sides there. Except they usually kick it after only one or two phases if there in their own half.Pick up the ball run into the defender, do this 4 or 5 times and then I'll kick it in the air, get's boring very quickly!!!
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
I have tried to watch league but union is in the blood, it's a religion for me. I couldn't name the league person you are referring to.
I do agree that the ELV's are blurring the difference between the two codes which is scary. I like it fine just how it is, unions not broken so I don't know why they are trying to fix it. League broke away from union and was always referred as the Northern Union in my house when I was growing up, it was a dark subject in our house and union mad South Wales.
I just don't like league, I'm not sorry about it. If I watched AFL or soccer I wouldn't know the rules either so I wouldn't like them either, I'm union through and through and proud of it.
League has got it's own problems to work out first. The salary cap issues and players leaving to head North.
Ummm no, because we only hear about anybody from any background once they've made it to top level rugby.
I'd suggest there are probably several stories (in both directions) of guys who had reps careers in one code and changed over to find that they didn't go anywhere and either played out a couple of seasons in the club game or retired, but nobody will know any of the names.
The fact is that there will always be top level players who change codes, both directions, it's not really a bad thing and it certainly does a lot to spice up the perennial argument of which code is best. I think the big problem and the cause of any justified vitriole in the rugby community is the penchant of certain administrators and media types to actively chase signatures from high profile playes of the 13 man code and offer them ridiculous contracts. I think this has reduced a bit since the failed experiment with the big three for NSW but let's face it, one is still playing and is doing well right now but could hardly be called consistent, the other two are long gone after not making much of an impression at all really. That made people mad, I can understand it, it was a waste of money and time, particularly when their replacements are essentially players who have been developed in Union ranks using whatever funds remained after those big contracts were paid.
Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against a player changing codes, Ryan Cross has done it pretty well in my opinion, he wanted to try his hand 'over the fence' and secured a contract, he wanted to be a wallaby and always mentioned that dream but didn't assume anything, rather he worked hard and made his way there. Tim Tam seems to have gone a similar way despite some media hype which seems to be driven by the adiministrators who seem to think the best backs are playing in the ARL.......
did anybody hear Canberra had beaten teh Roosters this weekend, I'll need to watch that game!
C'mon the![]()
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