porridge_time says...

The prospect of an inform SBW and Nonu pairing up for the New Zealand certainly is worth looking out for. Hopefully SBW will get the test bug and feel that coming back to the Chiefs and international rugby union is the way he wants his long term future to go.

Posted 11:17 29th July 2012

kiwilad says...

No Kahui, No Conrad Smith, Tamati Ellison next in line and good enough!!

But perhaps one more game in the Black shirt may be enough to lure him back after sholder charging his way around Aus.

Posted 01:27 29th July 2012

QKRAM79 says...

@caramba: Trevor Brennan opened that pub with his own money years before he was banned.

Posted 17:00 28th July 2012

Philly says...

Indeed Caramba. Startledwombat is 100% spot on. Its the professional era where players money. Nobody batted an eyelid when Dan Carter headed north and I for the life of me cannot see why SBW is the target of the most short sighted thinking ever. He is a player of immense talent. Why should he not capitalize on it? So funny how some posters here seem to still be stuck in the amateur mindset. "love of the game etc."

Posted 14:47 28th July 2012

KiwiLad says...

Max Power, Hung up your boots have you??

Thought you may have put yourself in there...

Posted 09:42 28th July 2012

startledwombat says...

@pagra

Good morning. I've read many comments about "money in rugby" as though it was some form of evil. The debate has been going on since the game was invented, as the working-class folks who formed the (Northern) Rugby league will tell you, as the English Public School products played without payment.

Those types who hee-hawed about "play for the love of the game" also received all sorts of under-the-table payments and gifts, as any senior club administrator will tell you.

In practice, the amateur ethos was a way for the nobs in the rugby hierarchy to exclude the poor, the working class, and - let's take it further - the non-whites.

I would like to understand what system rugby should go back to, if professional payments are not the arbiter of worth.

It's much better to select teams on talent and merit, pay tradesmen players what they are worth, and not exclude talented willing players from the game because they can't afford to play.

Posted 02:09 28th July 2012

MaxPower says...

cruden nonu sbw....awesome, carter on the bench as cover...

Posted 23:35 27th July 2012

shsvs says...

pagra your comment has so much more value than the ones from McCaw & Carter, 2 top players surely don't have a clue of what they're talking about compare to you and your obsession of the money SBW is gonna make while you sit your ass in front of a computer screen bitching like a sour man.

Keep it up that's great!

Posted 19:53 27th July 2012