Front-rowers' poor pay a cause of 'team tension'
FORMER Wallabies hooker Brendan Cannon claimed yesterday the relative underpayment of front-rowers in Australian rugby was creating deep-seated tensions within professional teams.
Cannon supported the claim of Test tighthead Matt Dunning in The Australian yesterday that it was unfair front-rowers earn substantially less than the flashy backs who rely on the hard work of engine-room players to win them the ball.
"Front-rowers would earn between 20-40 per cent less than backs of equivalent standing," Cannon said. "I've always felt that in a team sport everyone should be on the same money.
"Obviously there are always going to be a half-dozen 'entertainers' who will attract third-party sponsorships on top of that, but the base rate should be the same.
Rugby is structured so that everyone contributes in order for a few people to star.
"People won't talk about it openly but it's very hard to play in a team when you are doing exactly the same hard work as other guys who are earning so much more than you."
Matt Giteau, reputedly Australia's highest-paid rugby player even if he described himself as "Australia's highest-promised rugby player" -- a rueful reference to the failure of his third-party sponsor, Firepower, to deliver on what it offered him -- admitted he could not do what he does without the efforts of the unsung "piano lifters" up front. "What Matty Dunning is saying is true -- the forwards for the Wallabies laid a fantastic platform last year so the backs could attack off it," Giteau said. "I certainly agree that as a backline you can only perform as well as the forwards' platform allows you to."
He also agreed with Cannon that the subject is almost a taboo within teams.
"As for it causing rifts in teams, I certainly have never come across anything where players have begrudged other players because they're earning more," said Giteau, noting all players receive the same bonus for playing in Tests.
"In the end, the biggest thing is that you've got the opportunity to represent your country. I understand that some guys might be upset earning less but if you go back to when it was amateur, guys were actually sacrificing money, sacrificing jobs, to play for Australia."
Rugby Union Players Association boss Tony Dempsey conceded Cannon was "not far off the mark" with his assessment of a 20-40 per cent discrepancy working against front-rowers, but said there had been no groundswell from his membership to redress the situation.
"We prefer to let market forces deliver the outcome," Dempsey said. "But if the case was put to us that some positions were being manifestly discriminated against ... then we would look at it."
Former Wallabies coach John Connolly said there was no disputing Australia put a much lower monetary value on props than Britain or France.
"That definitely shouldn't be the case, but it is," Connolly said.
Dunning is well aware from the offers he has received from European clubs he can command more than double what he is being offered by the Australian Rugby Union.
He declined to reveal what ARU contract negotiator Peter Friend had put before him, but it is rumoured the national body is offering him no more than a nominal top-up over and above the $130,000 the Waratahs can bring to the table.
If those rumoured figures are correct, it suggests the ARU believes it is now well-covered with rising young props Ben Alexander, Dan Palmer, Ben Daley and Laurie Weeks and can present 44-Test veteran Dunning with a "take it or leave it" offer.
If that is the case, it's an intriguing rewriting of the rugby adage that props don't mature until they are in their late 20s. Dunning, who turned 30 in December, believes he is only just coming into his playing prime.
While some European clubs are prepared to hold off until June to give him time to prove he has fully recovered from a snapped achilles tendon, others are demanding he make a decision within a month.
"I want to give Australian rugby every chance and my best chance of getting a good offer out of them is to get back on the paddock and start playing well again," Dunning said.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html
