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Whiz kid James O'Connor off the menu for ACT Brumbies
Print Wayne Smith and Bret Harris | June 11, 2009
Article from: The Australian
GENERALLY when the news is too good to be true, it isn't true but just this once Western Force can breathe easily - the Brumbies truly have dropped out of the race for Wallabies wunderkind James O'Connor.
Chief Force negotiator Mitch Hardy smelt a rat when he read press reports of Brumbies chief executive Andrew Fagan running up the white flag in the long-running tug-of-war to secure the services of the most exciting young player in Australian rugby.
"Yeah, right," a still sceptical Hardy said yesterday. "They took him out to dinner on Sunday night and wined and dined him. They were probably all over him like a rash."
A bewildered Fagan insisted last night that whoever wined and dined the 18-year-old in Canberra - where he has been in camp with the Wallabies since Sunday's fan day - it was no one in authority at the Brumbies.
"We have not caught up with James, we have not spoken with him and we have no intention of catching up with him," Fagan said. "About the only time I am likely to see him is on Saturday night at Canberra Stadium - from my seat 38m from the action."
Although, Fagan also believed Rocky Elsom was going to Queensland Reds until he made a last-minute decision to join the Brumbies. "If we get a Rocky Elsom-type call from O'Connor we would find room for him. But he would have to make that call pretty quick," Fagan said.
Indeed, while he would never say so, there must be a part of Fagan that actually is relieved O'Connor will not be joining the already star-laden Brumbies next season. The Brumbies chased him because, like Everest, he was there, not because they needed him to fill any particular hole in their squad.
They already are embarrassed for five-eighths with Matt Giteau arriving to join Christian Lealiifano and Matt Toomua, while Tyrone Smith, Gene Fairbanks and Toomua provide adequate cover at inside centre.
As for fullback, Adam Ashley-Cooper already is the unluckiest player in recent Wallabies history to have surrendered his Test position to O'Connor for Saturday's first Test against Italy at Canberra Stadium, not because O'Connor isn't worthy of it but because Ashley-Cooper played brilliantly against the Barbarians.
Further driving home the point the Brumbies wanted O'Connor more than they needed him is the fact they intend allocating his allotted spot to an outside back.
"We initially were looking at a marquee international winger but now we've decided we will just look at some of the exciting young wing talent around - someone like (new Australian under-20 selection) Clinton Sills - and seeing if we can provide one of them with an opportunity," Fagan said.
Assuming the Brumbies' "unequivocal withdrawal" from the race isn't the sting Hardy originally feared it to be, O'Connor and his agent, Anthony Piccone, would appear to have lost some of their bargaining strength.
It is understood O'Connor's management had been seeking a substantial boost to the $150,000 third-party payments rumoured to have been offered by Perth backers of Western Force.
The new negotiation hot spot appears to be the level of top-up the ARU is prepared to offer O'Connor. Present indications are the ARU is prepared to offer a modest five-figure one - and at the low end of that.
But unless O'Connor is prepared to toss away a stellar Test career by turning his back on Australia and accepting an overseas offer, he seemingly has little option but to swallow his pride and accept the ARU's figure, in the knowledge he will be in a far stronger bargaining position when Australian rugby is hit by an inevitable wave of retirements and player moves to Europe and Japan following the 2011 World Cup.
The Brumbies are likely to receive some good news today with blindside flanker Mitch Chapman poised to re-sign.
When Elsom signed with the Brumbies, it looked like Chapman would be squeezed out of the squad and he began negotiations with his former team, Queensland Reds.
But Julian Salvi's decision to activate the get-out clause in his contract has created room for Chapman at the Brumbies.
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Originally Posted by Flamethrower
, sure the offer's bigger, that's because we've lost some high money talent (2/3rds of it to the Brumbies) Now you can't tell me that Valentine and Giteau aren't on significant third party agreements. I don't know (and probably nobody outside the corridors of power does) whether that was bigger than the WA offer, but they're certainly pumping a helluva lot of cash into player's pockets in the ACT.
