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By Wayne Smith
April 03, 2008
IF Australia flanker Rocky Elsom rejects an offer to play in Europe, he will wait until New South Wales appoints a new coach before deciding whether to stay with the Waratahs or offer his services to another province.
Elsom indicated he would be in a position within a week or so to let the Australian Rugby Union know whether he has accepted its offer.
Until now, it had been taken as a given that if he committed to the Australian Rugby Union, he would continue with the Waratahs.
However, the 32-Test flanker, the stand-out performer in the NSW side in its Super 14 campaign, wants to wait and see what direction the new Tahs coach intends to take the side before signing on for another stint in a sky blue jersey.
"I feel like it definitely will influence my decision," said Elsom, who is prepared to wait until the end of the month - the deadline the NSWRU has set itself to replace Ewen McKenzie - before finalising which Australian Super 14 team he will represent in 2009.
"We haven't reached our potential," said Elsom, referring to the Waratahs.
"I'd really need to wait and see who the new coach is before I make up my mind. I'd have to see how it would roll under the new coach."
Elsom is aware of rumours that Waratahs attack coach Todd Louden has been slated to replace McKenzie.
"Todd pretty much runs the team at the moment and he obviously has a big impact on how we play. But at the moment, he's the assistant coach, not head coach, so I really don't know what he would have in mind," Elsom said. "Whoever they appoint, it's not going to be a one-year deal."
Elsom, 25, has not officially spoken to any of the other provinces, Queensland, where he was educated, the Brumbies or the Western Force and none of them has lodged an expression of interest in him.
However, there is no doubt that he would trigger a stampede if he decided he wanted out from the Waratahs.
Meanwhile, the ARU's deadline for rising young Force flanker David Pocock to accept their offer has passed and the organisation is waiting to hear from his agent, Anthony Piccone.
But an ARU spokesman insisted the fact their offer to Pocock was no longer on the table was anything but a signal they weren't interested in the brilliant 19-year-old.
Pocock's management is understood to be dissatisfied with a reported ARU offer of $150,000 but such a figure would represent merely the minimum base rate and could rise to around $400,000 if, as expected, he makes his way into the Australia side this season.
Pocock's Force team-mate, fullback Cameron Shepherd, is nearing the end of his contract negotiations, indicating money was not the deciding factor.
"I'm weighing up other things," said Shepherd, who confirmed he had spoken to McKenzie, his former coach at the Waratahs.
"But the Western Force remain the frontrunners."
On Friday night the Force host Super 14 champions, the Bulls, and are bracing themselves for the usual heavyweight confrontation up front, combined with the sniping of the IRB's player of the year, Bryan Habana.
"We know we're going to get a lot of high balls because we didn't handle them last week against the Stormers and we know they are going to lob a lot of kicks over the defensive line for Habana," Shepherd said.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...-23217,00.html
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