Post by Farmduck on Jan 12, 2014 16:56:00 GMT 10
INCUMBENT Wallabies captain Ben Mowen said a pay dispute with the ARU had nothing to do with his decision to leave Australian rugby and play in France.
But the Australian Rugby union is set to continue hardball tactics with the Brumbies skipper and will refuse to grant him an early release from his contract.
Mowen - whose move to France was first flagged in the Daily Telegraph last year due to the ARU not offering him a contract top-up - is understood to have asked the ARU to be released after the Brumbies' Super Rugby season.
But under a strict new policy to deter foreign raiders - whose seasons start in August - all contracted players have to stay in Australia until the end of November. Long-serving players such as Mowen can get dispensation to leave a month earlier, but only after the third Bledisloe Cup Test is played in late October.
With Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie preferring to pick players "invested" in Australian rugby, overseas-bound players such as Drew Mitchell and Berrick Barnes were overlooked and forced to train privately for several months last year prior to departing for France and Japan respectively.
Mowen said he was unsure when his departure date would be - "that's all the final stages of negotiations with the ARU" - but said he understood if McKenzie left him to play Canberra club rugby or in the new National Rugby Competition.
"Link has said in the past if you play Super Rugby you are eligible (for Test duties) but he has also said he's using guys who are going to be there for the World Cup," Mowen said.
It would seem inconceivable for Cam Smith or Lockyer or Thurston to walk out on the AUS captaincy to play in SL, or anywhere. Clearly the ARU just doesn't have the big bucks it had 10 years ago.
But the Australian Rugby union is set to continue hardball tactics with the Brumbies skipper and will refuse to grant him an early release from his contract.
Mowen - whose move to France was first flagged in the Daily Telegraph last year due to the ARU not offering him a contract top-up - is understood to have asked the ARU to be released after the Brumbies' Super Rugby season.
But under a strict new policy to deter foreign raiders - whose seasons start in August - all contracted players have to stay in Australia until the end of November. Long-serving players such as Mowen can get dispensation to leave a month earlier, but only after the third Bledisloe Cup Test is played in late October.
With Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie preferring to pick players "invested" in Australian rugby, overseas-bound players such as Drew Mitchell and Berrick Barnes were overlooked and forced to train privately for several months last year prior to departing for France and Japan respectively.
Mowen said he was unsure when his departure date would be - "that's all the final stages of negotiations with the ARU" - but said he understood if McKenzie left him to play Canberra club rugby or in the new National Rugby Competition.
"Link has said in the past if you play Super Rugby you are eligible (for Test duties) but he has also said he's using guys who are going to be there for the World Cup," Mowen said.
It would seem inconceivable for Cam Smith or Lockyer or Thurston to walk out on the AUS captaincy to play in SL, or anywhere. Clearly the ARU just doesn't have the big bucks it had 10 years ago.