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ARU $3.5m offer to keep Lote
Greg Growden Chief Rugby Correspondent and Rupert Guinness in Kimberley
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Wallabies winger Lote Tuqiri will next week be offered a deal worth more than $3.5 million over four seasons to ensure he does not return to rugby league.
And Wallabies coach John Connolly, concerned about a dearth of quality outside backs, is also hoping to convince Queensland centre Ben Tune not to retire after the Super 14 tournament, as he is looking at him as a 2007 World Cup squad member.
Amid reports he wanted to follow Mat Rogers back to the league ranks when his contract expires after the World Cup, Tuqiri recently knocked back the ARU's original offer. But the ARU will re-open negotiations next week when the NSW winger returns from South Africa.
Although the new deal is similar in some respects to the original offer, it is staggered in such a way as to ensure that the 27-year-old Tuqiri remains in rugby virtually until he retires. The contract will be increased from about $800,000 for each of the first two seasons to up to $1 million in the third and fourth years.
Although rugby league cannot officially raise comparable sums because of the salary cap, ARU officials are concerned that through lucrative third-party deals the rival code could lure Tuqiri back. They argue such deals prevented rugby being able to tempt Mark Gasnier into switching from league last season. ARU officials believe Tuqiri's staying in rugby is a "50-50" proposition.
Tuqiri said yesterday that while in South Africa he had been in contact with his business adviser, Les Ross. The most recent league talks have been with Rabbitohs boss Peter Holmes a Court.
"Les has been talking with him and has all the options ready for me," Tuqiri said. "We will sit down and have a look at them all next week."
ARU general manager Pat Wilson, who will be involved in the Tuqiri negotiations, was coy about the subject yesterday.
"We're just doing some internal dialogue on the subject to work out where we stand," Wilson said. "But it is fair to say we were interested in some comments over the weekend, which include that he is supposedly meeting with the Sydney Roosters and he may take a reduced deal to go back to league.
"The main thing for us is to hear from Lote that he has a genuine desire to play for the Wallabies."
Tuqiri has admitted his on-field decision-making edge has gone missing on NSW's three-match tour of South Africa. He also concedes the contractual negotiations over his playing future have been a burden but refuses to blame it for his woes on the paddock.
"It has and it hasn't," Tuqiri said when arriving in Kimberley, where the Waratahs will play the Cheetahs on Saturday (Sunday morning, Sydney time). "It is not an excuse. It's more about it being so early in the season and me needing to sharpen up."
For a player of such talent, Tuqiri knows he has yet to leave his mark in the Super 14, saying: "Some of my decision-making wasn't the best and something I should improve on. It is [about] repetition in training. We haven't done enough of it, especially for South African teams that kick a lot. I just have to get out on the training park and try and do that, get used to doing that - making the right decisions."
His comments come as NSW reach the end of a tour that has challenged the players' resilience to travel extensively, as South Africans teams do. Now they must tackle Kimberley's arid, dry heat.
"It has been hard," Tuqiri said. "We were all hydrated, but we seemed a bit flat [against the Sharks]. I still feel flat now."
Tune is also in the ARU's sights, with Wallabies officials wanting him to reconsider his decision to retire after the Super 14 because his body "has just had enough". There is a shortage of capable, experienced midfielders in Australia and Connolly is among many who believe Tune will be invaluable at this year's World Cup.
Lote's whole lot of offers
From Peter Jenkins in Kimberley, c/o FoxSports
February 13, 2007
RUGBY superstar Lote Tuqiri plans to settle his future within a month after revealing that five NRL clubs are in the chase for his signature next season.
Tuqiri said he expects firm offers from the Sharks, South Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast and the Sydbney Roosters within a fortnight and will weigh them against an Australian Rugby Union bid to keep him in the game beyond the World Cup.
The celebrated dual international, concerned at his lack of game-breaking impact in the opening two rounds of Super 14, said the uncertainty over where his career was headed has been a factor in his flat start to the series.
But he also vowed the Waratahs' clash with the Cheetahs in Kimberley on Sunday morning, the last of their three matches in South Africa, "will be the best game I've played this year".
Tuqiri's advisor Les Ross has been handling negotiations with interested parties during the Waratahs tour.
"He's had meetings and I think he's going to have everything out on the table when I get back," said the wing. "Hopefully I can nut something out within a month or so.
"I'd like to get it over with sooner rather than later. I've said that all along but things just haven't happened.
"With the ARU we haven't got a clear sort of reference in where to go with them.
"There's a lot of issues they're dealing with at the moment and I think we've been put to the side a bit. But Les spoke to (ARU official) Pat Wilson last week and he's getting back to us. So we'll see what happens from there."
The ARU initially offered Tuqiri a four-year deal worth around $3 million, a figure well short of the $1 million-a-year contract that sources claimed he was likely to receive.
Asked if the ongoing battle for his services was affecting his form, Tuqiri said: "Everything going on probably hasn't helped and it's something I've just got to shut out."
But he suggested there were other issues he needed to resolve to rediscover the spark that has made him a world-class attacking threat since switching codes in 2003.
"To be honest I don't think I have as big a responsibility in this team to make things happen as I do at the Wallabies," he said.
"I need to demand the ball more and get into the game earlier. I'm not putting pressure on myself to do that.
"I've got to step up. I've got to try harder to make things happen, to be the man."