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Thankfully the "Great One" didn't pull this one off
O'Neill's plan to cross codes
Bret Harris | July 28, 2007
DURING his first stint as ARU chief executive John O'Neill discussed creating a hybrid of rugby league and rugby union with the man powerful enough to make it happen: Kerry Packer.
During a meeting between the two that went on for several hours, Packer got out a sheet of butcher's paper, drew a football field on it and mapped out what a hybrid game would look like.
He proposed making the field smaller because television audiences wanted tries.
Packer was in favour of keeping rugby union's lineout and scrums because they were genuine contests for possession, but said the ruck and maul were "a dog's breakfast".
Rugby league's play-the-ball was "a far more sensible" option.
The media proprietor was also adamant rugby union had two too many players on the field. Rugby league's 13 was his ideal.
However, the two men's vision, which O'Neill details in his new book It's Only a Game, ultimately came to nothing because of Packer's concern for his rugby league audience.
"At the end of the day, son, we're appealing to two different markets " Packer told O'Neill.
"And the power of rugby league's penetration into the western suburbs of Sydney is something I'd never give up or risk."
In his book, O'Neill reveals he originally explored his idea of the reunification of the two codes with John Alexander, then head of Packer's media empire PBL, who arranged a meeting with the company's billionaire owner.
When O'Neill walked into Packer's office, he was leaning back in his chair with his feet on his desk. He wore no shoes and was chewing Minties, while watching a vast number of television screens on a wall.
Over several hours O'Neill and Packer had a "wonderfully robust and provocative" conversation on rugby unification, discussing the pros and cons of both games.
Packer, disaffected by the Super League dispute, told O'Neill there was a time he would not have crossed the street to watch rugby union. It was a good game to play, but a "shithouse" game to watch.
Rugby had made tremendous inroads and could be "fantastically entertaining" on occasions, but "it can still be boring".
O'Neill has also used his book to defended his controversial push to recruit rugby league players, but criticised the coaching and management of the converts.
Along with then Wallabies coach Eddie Jones, O'Neill was the driver behind the expensive signings of Wendell Sailor, Mat Rogers and Lote Tuqiri for the 2003 World Cup.
Since then, Sailor has been banished from the game for drug use; Rogers returned to rugby league before his ARU contract expired and Tuqiri, who is in the World Cup squad, just served a two-Test suspension for breaching player behaviour standards.
O'Neill says he wanted to gain revenge for the one-way traffic of rugby union players to league since since Dally Messenger defected in 1908.
He also saw it as a strategic move to increase the popularity of rugby union and turn the code of "leather elbow patches" into the "people's game".
"As for Sailor, Rogers and Tuqiri, did they fulfil expectations?" O'Neill writes.
"They all made the Wallabies team and they got there on form. They have been exceptional at various stages, particularly Tuqiri.
"While Wendell didn't fully adapt, he also wore the stigma of being branded a robot in rugby union ... was it his fault alone or was he coached robotically during his time in the game?
"I can't recall him - or Lote - being given a lot of ball in space. We bought these rugby league backline stars to play on the wing or, in the case of Rogers, across several positions. I don't know if the style of game we've followed during that same period has been playing to their respective strengths. New Zealand have been playing a super expansive game where Joe Rokocoko and Sitiveni Sivivatu seem to be given acres in which to showcase their ability to run the ball."
O'Neill says Brisbane Broncos coach Wayne Bennett had kept Sailor "on the straight and narrow".
"Rugby should have devised better ways of managing their assimilation and induction into the rugby union way of life," O'Neill writes.
"Perhaps we felt the Wallaby culture was strong enough to influence them."
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