ARU Contracts

[The EnForcer]

They just don't get it, West is best!

[WF2404]

Completely gobsmacked personally - between connolly and flowers they seemed determined to piss off as many home grown wallabies as possible, buy as many leaguies as they can, ignore the outcomes of sailor and rogers and make sure they we completely undermine our development program.

I agree - Bring back ONeil!!!

Maybe with Stanners not being able to play at #12 then it's harder for him to push for wallaby selection.

After the last few week I reckon we should be playing the following backline to give both ourselves the best chance of finals and the guys the best chance of wallaby selection

9. Henjak
10. Giteau
11. Mitchell
12. Staniforth
13. Cross
14. Ioane
15. Shepherd

I really hope we can stop both players from looking elsewhere - it must be a particularly hard pill to swallow for Staniforth after his last run in with leaguies at the Warratahs.

My 4 year old sums it up best when she says "Staniforth is KING!!!"

[Darren]

I find it hard to contain my anger, after reading in today's West, that Scott Fava and Scott Staniforth are to have their ARU contracts downgraded

Story is HERE and quoted below for those that didn't get the printed version. Thanks Goldmember for the link

Staniforth, Fava get the brush
24th March 2007, 10:30 WST

Western Force vice-captains Scott Staniforth and Scott Fava are considering playing overseas next year after the Australian Rugby Union downgraded their contracts.

Click here to find out more!

The Wallabies duo are angry the ARU have reduced their payment at a time they have spent big to lure from rugby league Tamanu Tahu, who will be 30 when the 2012 World Cup comes around.

Brumbies backs Clyde Rathbone and Mark Gerrard are also seething over similar treatment.

Staniforth and Fava are considering lucrative offers from Europe and Japan.

Staniforth, the Force’s player of the year and leading scorer last season, declined to comment but is known to be particularly angry because it is the second time he has had to pay the price for the ARU’s obsession with rugby league recruits.

Despite having played in the 1999 World Cup, he found himself surplus to requirements at NSW in 2002 when the ARU raided league for Lote Tuqiri, Mat Rogers and Wendell Sailor. He headed to England to play for London Irish.

The Force persuaded Staniforth, 29, to return to Australia last year and he repaid the faith shown in him by the new Super 14 side by scoring nine tries to be equal leading try scorer in the competition’s regular season and earning a place in the Wallabies squad.

Now, with the ARU spending $1.1 million in the past week to keep the poorly performing Tuqiri and acquire Tahu, he has been told the downgrading of his deal is because of financial constraints.

Fava represented the Wallabies in the mid-year Tests in 2006 but was selected only for lesser games against Scotland A and Ireland A on the November tour of Europe, with Wallabies coach John Connolly opting for Wycliff Palu or David Lyons at No. 8 in the Tests.

“I’ve probably got another three years before I retire and I need a good contract, especially with a baby on the way,” he said.

“If overseas means more money, so be it. It’s up to the ARU to make a better offer.”

The Force feel Fava has been one of the best No. 8s in Super 14 this season and have increased their offer to him but accept it will be hard to hold on to him if the ARU goes the other way.

“Their view is opposite to how we perceive Scotty’s value,” Force chief executive Peter O’Meara said yesterday. “They’ve reduced his top-up amount but we’ve increased ours.

“We’ve done everything we can to try to keep these two players, but they’re not happy.”

ARU operations manager Pat Wilson said he would try to persuade the two players otherwise in the next week.

Wilson insisted he understood the players’ frustrations but said setting a player’s value was a balancing act between past feats and future worth.

“It’s not only the current situation we assess but who is likely to be a future Wallaby,” he said.

DAVE HUGHES

[Goldmember]

Looks like Staniforth is going to have to play overseas - and I don't blame him.
I agree with your backline WF2404 but it seems as though John Mitchell has other ideas...

[joblot]

I totally agree with WF2404's selection of the top backline. Mitchell (D) is a class winger, Sheps is probably the best 15 in the competition, Stanners has never been a wing, his last year's results confirm his being a class centre. Cross has produced the goods at 13 and Digby is an absolute sensation with future written all over him. For goodness sake, don't let this immense talent go. I know that QLD are desperate to get him back. Please do not let it happen.