Results 1 to 9 of 9

Thread: Blue, white and red-faced, but c'est la vie

  1. #1
    Immortal Contributor
    Moderator
    travelling_gerry's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Perth, Western Australia, Australia
    Posts
    18,483
    vCash
    5062000

    Blue, white and red-faced, but c'est la vie



    Peter FitzSimons | July 29, 2008

    THE forces that snatched Sonny Bill Williams in the night have been building for some time and are still a long way from peaking.

    French rugby is hungry and getting hungrier for NRL players. When I first went to play for France's Brive club in 1985, I was the first foreigner to don their colours. This week I was back there and was told that of the 40 players in the squad for next season, four will be French. The rest are an amalgam of players from the Six Nations, together with Argentinians, Australians and New Zealanders.

    In a fiercely competitive market that is now a nascent version of the English Premier League, where money is no object and nothing matters but getting the best available footballers, NRL players are viewed as a wonderful new source. (Much as league once viewed amateur rugby union players.)

    Across France, even run-of-the-mill players are on a wage nudging $30,000 a month, while the All Black Dan Carter, who is to join the Perpignan club in a couple of months, will be on about $1.5 million for six months.

    The money is coming from three sources. Primarily, the big cheques come from French multimillionaires who like to boast about having their own club in a manner similar to American squillionaires with baseball, basketball or football teams.

    The second source is the sporting sugar-daddy to beat them all: television. When I was in France, we were on TV once or twice a season. Now, every first division game, every week, is on the tube and achieving good ratings, so the networks are happy to pay huge amounts for the broadcasting rights.

    Finally, sponsorship dollars are pouring in as never before. The game gets constant exposure across Europe and the best teams are often involved in hugely watched European Cup games.

    The lure of huge money was no doubt paramount to the French signings of Williams, Mark Gasnier and Craig Gower, but there is another undeniable factor: it is a delightful way to live. In Williams's case he will be right on the French Riviera, with Cannes, Nice and Monte Carlo up the road, playing with some of the best players in the world, training at superb facilities and heading off to Paris, London and Dublin with some regularity. The games will be tough and demanding, but not as gruelling as the NRL. And instead of his fish-bowl existence in Sydney, should he desire to get lost in France, in love, it won't be hard.

    How can the NRL compete? It can't. A bare beginning would be doing away with the salary cap, which conspires to pay players way below their market worth, but there is not a lot else that beckons.


    Calls for the International Rugby Board to do something are naive. Why would union step in to save the same league that has systematically and without apology pillaged its ranks for the past century? And what authority would it have, anyway?

    Could the Federation Francaise de Rugby step in and tell Toulon to stop being so mean to the NRL? Uh, no. French rugby views our league players with respect but the game itself as a hopeless joke and will feel no allegiance whatsoever to the NRL. The NRL runs a professional provincial competition; the FFR runs a professional national competition, with international exposure. France has more money. France wins.

    Legal injunctions? Good luck. Extradition treaties for criminals are one thing; a legal process to bring back runaway footballers quite another. Canterbury will no doubt pursue Williams to fulfil the terms of his contract, but the man Phil Gould called "the Messiah of Rugby League" has gone to union and won't be coming back, and many, many NRL players will pursue the French connection in his wake.

    All up, the best that rugby league can do in the face of being pillaged for years to come is to do what rugby union did for years when the roles were reversed - bleat loudly and learn to live with it. At least, as long as it can.


    pfitzsimons@smh.com.au



    http://www.rugbyheaven.com.au/news/n...e#contentSwap1

    0 Not allowed! Not allowed!

  2. #2
    Legend Contributor brokendown gunfighter's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    wembley
    Posts
    8,036
    vCash
    5366000
    bloody ripsnorter

    0 Not allowed! Not allowed!

  3. #3
    Champion welshrugbyfan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Home
    Posts
    2,014
    vCash
    5000000
    Quote Originally Posted by brokendown gunfighter View Post
    bloody ripsnorter
    My sentiments exactly, any league lovers want to challenge the great man's comments????

    0 Not allowed! Not allowed!

  4. #4
    Immortal jargan83's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Earth Capital
    Posts
    21,468
    vCash
    462000
    i won't challenge the comments, i respect Peter Fitzsimons. I just don't understand how people can justify SBW walking out on his contract.

    Espeacially you who has complained about the lack of loyalty in this day and age

    0 Not allowed! Not allowed!

  5. #5
    Veteran Swee_82's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Perth
    Posts
    3,151
    vCash
    5000000
    Quote Originally Posted by jargan83 View Post
    I just don't understand how people can justify SBW walking out on his contract.
    Precisely Jargs- couldn't give two hoots about SBW or union vs league but if the muppet signed a 5 year contract, and the Bulldogs have honoured that contract to date, then they've plenty of reason to be angry (and litigious).

    0 Not allowed! Not allowed!
    Last edited by Swee_82; 30-07-08 at 09:46.

  6. #6
    Immortal jargan83's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Earth Capital
    Posts
    21,468
    vCash
    462000
    i couldn't give flying yahoo about SBW, or the whole league vs union debate. This is about a bloke who said he wanted to play for someone long term, signed a contract to that end and now wants to walk out on his obligations.
    Posted via Mobile Device

    0 Not allowed! Not allowed!

  7. #7
    Immortal Contributor shasta's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Mandurah
    Posts
    15,726
    vCash
    5472000
    I couldn't give a rats. Anyone rubbing their hands together at the way the NRL is under "assault" should just take a minute to think about this phenomenon. The NRL has so far only lost SBW, Gasnier and Rooney ( Nobody's counting Gower as a loss and I don't count our dual internationals as losses even if the NRL do ) If they want Money Bill and are willing to pay that kind of money for a shoulder charge merchant who is unproven in Rugby, what will they pay for the likes of Pocock, Giteau, O'Connor, Brown, .............and a host of others when they are off contract?

    Lets just wait and see what happens before we believe the sky is falling for either code.
    The best solution for the future of our production line would be for the NRL and ARU to listen to the suggestion from Wayne Bennett & Alex Evans.

    Evans, Bennett push for hybrid rugby - Breaking News - Sport - Breaking News

    One thing this does prove is what some people on this site are only just starting to grudgingly admit, a lot of the best Rugby players in THIS country are still playing Rugby League (at the moment).

    0 Not allowed! Not allowed!
    "The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David


  8. #8
    Immortal GIGS20's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Rockingham
    Posts
    20,508
    vCash
    1296000
    Quote Originally Posted by Peter FitzSimons
    Calls for the International Rugby Board to do something are naive. Why would union step in to save the same league that has systematically and without apology pillaged its ranks for the past century? And what authority would it have, anyway?
    He's probably right on this point, the IRB couldn't give a rat's ass about it and probably aren't in a position to effect any change whatsoever anyway! Essentially this is the key sentence of the article, the rest of it is typical Fitzy tongue in cheek chest thumping to evoke just such a reaction as has been shown by the various factions on this site (ie the pro League and anti league guys)

    Quote Originally Posted by Peter FitzSimons
    All up, the best that rugby league can do in the face of being pillaged for years to come is to do what rugby union did for years when the roles were reversed - bleat loudly and learn to live with it. At least, as long as it can.
    yeah and of course the whole contract law thing.......I reckon David Gallop needs to just shut up and hire a good lawyer. Let's face it, even if they win an injunction, what have they really won? a couple of years with a disgruntled petulant ass sitting on the sidelines not playing either code! I say they need to go for the contract monies paid to him back because he is in breach of the contract.....let's see how Toulon like paying his wages for a couple of years playing NRL football!

    Aside from that, just get some lawyer to sue him for damages (I'm sure they will be able to make lovely statements about destroying the culture of the game to add to the financial costs of losing a marquee player mid season.

    0 Not allowed! Not allowed!
    C'mon the

  9. #9
    Champion welshrugbyfan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Home
    Posts
    2,014
    vCash
    5000000
    I know the whole contract thing is ugly but it is only a job. Maybe the contract should have a leaving clause where the player will be stopped being payed the day he wants to stop playing for the club. If you had to sign a contract at your job for the next five years and then after a while you hated it or you got a dream better offer would you stay? Think about that first before slamming SBW.

    My own opinion of club loyalty doesn't come into it as those days are gone. Club loyalty is gone forever and you would probably only see it if a player was born in the area of the clubs home ground and grew up dreaming of playing for the team he followed as a kid.

    I personally think SBW is the most over rated player in the NRL today, yeah he made some devastating shoulder charge type tackles when he first appeared which got the hype about him started.

    A he can't do that in Union and B one of his shoulders is already stuffed from doing it. I am not niave enough to know that players like Gits will be targeted soon, at least Toulon and other French clubs can honour their payments to players.

    Just another minor fact is that every single game in the French Top 14 is televised each week on French TV. Rich businessmen love the bravado of owning a French rugby club just like some of the worlds top soccer teams do or the same in the US with American Football, Baseball and Basketball.

    0 Not allowed! Not allowed!

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •