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Wayne Smith | June 05, 2009
Article from: The Australian
THE Australian Rugby Union has rejected Hugh McMeniman's plea for dispensation to play one last season of Super 14 for the Reds before moving to Japan.
Under ARU rules, only players eligible to represent the Wallabies are permitted to play Super rugby and by opting to take up a minimum three-year contract in Japan, McMeniman, 25, has forfeited his eligibility.
The utility Test forward had been hoping for that rule to be waived, even offering to play next season for no more than his mortgage payments.
Certainly the Reds, who finished second-last in this year's Super 14 and have not recruited a single player of note for next season, were desperate for him to be granted an exemption.
Failing that, they had hoped the rule allowing each province to have one foreign international on their books not eligible to play for Australia might have been stretched to cover a home-grown but nonetheless ineligible international player.
But ARU boss John O'Neill has ruled it will create a dangerous precedent if the regulations are relaxed for McMeniman.
"I understand the arguments, but it's like a crack in the dam if you just start to loosen up the rules on this," O'Neill said.
Nor will the ARU be softening its stance on refusing to select overseas-based Australians, much as it would like to make use next year of players such as McMeniman and Dan Vickerman, who is with Northampton.
Had it been prepared to do so, almost certainly Waratahs pair Phil Waugh and Al Baxter and the Brumbies' George Smith would have accepted overseas offers. McMeniman was disappointed but not overly surprised by the ARU's decision.
"I was expecting something like this," McMeniman said.
"It's their policy and good on them for enforcing it. I understand why they have got to stay strong on enforcing it."
It has been a tough couple of weeks for the Reds, first with McMeniman's announcement and then with confirmation from Rocky Elsom that he had broken off negotiations with Queensland to sign with the Brumbies.
The Reds had hoped Elsom's decision to join the ACT would prise loose Mitchell Chapman who, disenchanted with the Reds, quit Queensland in 2007. But the news that flanker Julian Salvi almost certainly intends to head overseas, means there is a Brumbies contract open to Chapman.
* ARU director Bob Dalziel will stand down at today's board meeting after completing his second term. It is belieced a former Wallaby prominent in business circles is in line to fill the vacancy.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html
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