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Is it au revoir Lote?
By Peter Jenkins
August 20, 2007
THE whispers have already started that the World Cup could be Lote Tuqiri's farewell mission with Australia.
There is talk that the millionaire winger is fuming over the curfew slapped on him by the Australian Rugby Union and views it as the last straw in a season of frustrating punishments and setbacks.
They also expect the dual international to seek a release from his five-year, $5 million contract if he can secretly source another big-paying employer.
The potential split follows the ARU imposing sanctions on Tuqiri and prop Matt Dunning, who partied for 10 hours after a combat-style boot camp in Queensland.
The celebrations included a gathering in Dunning's hotel room where the pair hosted a group of people, including a stranger who allegedly assaulted a taxi driver shortly after leaving their company around 5.30am.
According to a source within the inner sanctum, the disciplinary action handed down to the two players in a highly publicised fallout has left Tuqiri "seriously questioning whether he made the right decision to re-sign with the ARU".
In some quarters, the feeling is mutual. The love-in this year that surrounded Tuqiri as the ARU sought to prevent him heading back to the NRL has definitely cooled for both parties.
At the height of the chase for the dreadlocked star, Tuqiri was courted by five NRL clubs before announcing he was staying with the ARU until 2012 on a deal worth $1 million a year.
As negotiations reached a head and Tuqiri was staring at a $4.3 million return over five years, he was still hesitant about staying. It took a $140,000-a-year endorsement deal from Vodafone, only hours before his ARU deadline passed, to clinch his retention. (Crikey Gerard!!!)
Tuqiri accepted the terms of his contract months back but only put pen to paper 17 days ago - a week before he and Dunning hit the headlines over their night on the town in Brisbane.
A Wallabies official said last night the delay was caused by a Vodafone executive, charged with signing off on the package, being on leave for three months.
It sounds a bit far-fetched. Surely Vodafone's commercial arrangements would not grind to a halt because of one man's absence.
But, even if that was the case, the speculation is mounting that The Cinderella Man - Tuqiri has to be in by midnight every night of the World Cup campaign - is ready to flee the ball after the World Cup.
He is already on the record as saying that if the Wallabies had won the 2003 World Cup he would probably have left the game then, his major ambition fulfilled.
The Webb Ellis trophy remains unfinished business but regardless of how the Wallabies perform this time around, there are those who believe Tuqiri might consider playing elsewhere next season, even if it means taking a significant pay cut.
"Some people are starting to wonder whether he wants to be here," said a figure inside the Wallabies' set-up. "Take a look at what's happened this year.
"He and a couple of others were sent home from a training camp in Canberra for not being up to speed with fitness. LT was far from impressed with how that went down and how it appeared in the media so quickly.
"There was the push on teammate Sam Norton-Knight in a Waratahs game, which suggested he wasn't a happy camper.
"Then when you sleep in after a night out and miss a couple of Wallaby team commitments (Tuqiri was later breathalysed by the doctor and failed, leading to a two-Test suspension), you have to wonder what's going on.
"He was also dirty over being stood down from two Tests this year when he was told to fine-tune his speed. He just wanted to play. There's no doubt he felt hard done by too over this latest episode in Brisbane."
ARU boss John O'Neill had no sympathy for Tuqiri, placing him on a last-chance warning. A number of Wallabies also confided to leading officials that something had to be done to rein in two "serial offenders" off the field.
But the million-dollar question remains: if Lote does want out, and there is no doubt the ARU would grant him a release if he sought one, who can afford him?
Brisbane Broncos chief executive Bruno Cullen said the NRL club that lost Tuqiri to the rival code in 2003 would not have the necessary funds to make a serious pitch.
"We had discussions with him this year, but we would have been one of the first to drop out," Cullen said. "We wouldn't have the financial wherewithal, certainly not for the next two years."
Which leads us to another Cinderella Man, Hollywood star Russell Crowe. In his other day job, as co-owner of the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Crowe tried to entice Tuqiri back to the NRL this year, holding talks with the dual international at the actor's harbour front apartment.
It is thought the Rabbitohs came within a nose twitch of getting their man, who is also a close friend of the team's other owner, Peter Holmes a Court.
Asked if he would be interested in speaking to Tuqiri should he re-enter the market, Holmes a Court danced around the issue by suggesting there was no chance Lote would return to the NRL.
If his mate is right, then the options for Tuqiri lie in the delights of Europe.
Super League clubs or the elite rugby union sides in France and England are probably the only serious entities that could offer Tuqiri anywhere near what the ARU have agreed to pay him.
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