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Rumors: Israel Folau to Toulon (After RWC 2015)

Jaguares

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IRB won't help Wallabies keep stars:

The ARU won't receive any help from the International Rugby Board (IRB) in its battle to keep superstars like Israel Folau from defecting to cashed-up French clubs. IRB chief executive Brett Gosper sympathises with the plight of the Australian Rugby Union, which is fighting a war on all fronts. Domestically, the ARU finds itself with backs to the wall in an ultra-competitive sporting market and, at the same time, dealing with the ever-present threat posed by European poachers.

Folau is reportedly being targeted by French side Toulon to become the highest-paid player in world rugby and defect before next year's World Cup. If the Wallabies' best and most marketable athlete was to leave, it would serve as another major body blow to the financially strapped ARU, and would force it to rethink its stance which prevents overseas-based players representing Australia in Test matches.

Gosper says the IRB is conscious of the potential for an imbalance to be caused in world rugby, where clubland begins to dictate the international game, like in European soccer or cricket's IPL. However, he doesn't believe the threat has reached "Armageddon" proportions and says it's the ARU's job to convince Folau and other targets like Will Genia to stay.

"Folau is one of the world's top rugby properties so he's going to be vulnerable to the big offer," Gosper said on Wednesday. "The ARU should be persuading him that this is the place where he has his celebrity, where he's a local hero, where he can cash in on his celebrity and play rugby to his potential and look at the total picture - not just his pay packet. "But, at the end of the day, it's totally up to him. "The IRB is not in a position to say, 'you're going to lose a marquee player - here's a cheque'. "That's just not how the IRB operates."

Gosper insisted "clubs are not the enemy of rugby", however he said if international unions wanted to discuss a new compensation system to deal with new market forces, then the IRB would be open to discussions. At the moment, member nations are compensated at World Cup time and given a piece of the IRB's cut. Gosper said he hoped the lure of playing in an Olympic Games would help the ARU hold onto Folau.

http://www.3news.co.nz/IRB-wont-hel..._53e97ccfb4-faeb3a21fd-63589685#ixzz34NN8mwYY
 
Last I heard of it they were looking at grabbing him after the World Cup? They'll be gunning for him, Kaino, Carter and either Nonu or Smith, I'd imagine... Read is too young, too Kiwi to head over there at this point.
 
Been hearing this for a little while, but I'm not too worried. Folau is on pretty big money as it is and part of the reason he wanted to go to AFL in the first place was to move home to Sydney, hence why the two options he had after were a Sydney NRL club and the Waratahs. He's not an insanely greedy guy, so I can't see him rushing away from his family again until the twilight years of his career.
 
Been hearing this for a little while, but I'm not too worried. Folau is on pretty big money as it is and part of the reason he wanted to go to AFL in the first place was to move home to Sydney, hence why the two options he had after were a Sydney NRL club and the Waratahs. He's not an insanely greedy guy, so I can't see him rushing away from his family again until the twilight years of his career.

TBH honest I'm not as confident as you are that he will stay. He's said before one of the attractions of rugby is that he gets to see the world plus his move to AFL and then rugby was largely based around money. I'm hoping he stays but I've got a feeling he might go.
 
TBH honest I'm not as confident as you are that he will stay. He's said before one of the attractions of rugby is that he gets to see the world plus his move to AFL and then rugby was largely based around money. I'm hoping he stays but I've got a feeling he might go.

From what I hear the AFL cash was obviously a motivation, but playing for the storm made him miss his family quite a bit. The cash from Rugby and the NRL wasn't as much as what the AFL were paying him, but he didn't enjoy AFL, so to switch he looked at Sydney options for League and Union. No one else was in the bidding.
 
Why is this even news? The IRB has never helped anybody in regards to player contract, it doesn't happen in any sport either. You could say that the ARU have been there own enemy. By keeping such an iron grip on the game making sure everything flows down from the wallabies they've kept an alliance with Nz and Sa. Perhaps they would have been better of going a different way and they could have real growth.
 
muahaha told you Aussie peasants we were stealing him. K, so who else you got to play fullback now, mmm ??...come on come on, no time to lose ! It's got to chain up !!
Oh and I like that Michaelangelo Hooffer too. We want that one as well...
 
If this were to happen, I don't see anyone beating Toulon next year along with the signings of O' Connor and Halfpenny.
 
Not happening. Fairfax newspapers have confirmed Folau has no early exit clause in his contract with us, so he's not going anywhere for a while yet.
 
muahaha told you Aussie peasants we were stealing him. K, so who else you got to play fullback now, mmm ??...come on come on, no time to lose ! It's got to chain up !!
Oh and I like that Michaelangelo Hooffer too. We want that one as well...
Hoops strikes me as too patriotic. Besides he's gonna be swimming in *****es when he's the Wallaby captain.
 
Hoops strikes me as too patriotic. Besides he's gonna be swimming in *****es when he's the Wallaby captain.

eh, money gets to virtually everyone. Not even Gandalf wanted to be tested by the ring, and he was a homosexual. Uhmm...wait I kinda lost the logic in that...
 
Read is contracted until 2017... money never got to mccaws head. He is more then happy to earn his 750k plus promotions/ bonuses etc, live at home and fly his planes. Its interesting how different players regard the jersey... carl hayman for instance left for overseas when he was 26/27 and never looked back. Hes still one of the best tightheads in the world and could of been an all black great by now approaching 100 caps... but money often wins
 
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Read is contracted until 2017...

we like that one too. But apparently he's the type to play hard to get, so we'll just have to be a little patient, and actually wait all the way til the end of the RWC......:rolleyes: geeez, such drama queens !...
 
The question I have is where do these French teams get all this cash from? Is rugby that big? It seems like a lot of top 14 matches are played in front of pretty small crowds...
 
The question I have is where do these French teams get all this cash from? Is rugby that big? It seems like a lot of top 14 matches are played in front of pretty small crowds...

we don't like to talk about zat...business is a bloody errr...*touchy* matter, you see...
 
The question I have is where do these French teams get all this cash from? Is rugby that big? It seems like a lot of top 14 matches are played in front of pretty small crowds...

Their tv deal is much bigger than sanzar and that's supposed to cover three nations plus international rugby... And apparently tv money only makes up a fraction of the revenue of clubs.

They also get money from local government, companies, investors, sugar daddies. Also merchandise and food sales.
 
Their tv deal is much bigger than sanzar and that's supposed to cover three nations plus international rugby... And apparently tv money only makes up a fraction of the revenue of clubs.

They also get money from local government, companies, investors, sugar daddies. Also merchandise and food sales.

The TV deal isn't a big shock - rugby in Australia is pretty fringe really, and pulls in about 1/7th of what rugby league does in tv dollars here. But it's not like you have NRL clubs constantly poaching rugby union players. Although the NRL is a very strong production line for players so it's not really that necessary. So I suppose it's also a question of what is going on with French player development.
 

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