Get a life Rugby

It comes as no surprise the NSWRU today announced on the eve of the first Origin match that they (NSWRU) are announcing their intentions to sign Andrew Johns to the Waratahs.

Get a life Rugby. Please, do us all a favour and leave your pathetic grandstanding until after the greatest spectacle in Australian sport has finished. Have another glass of chardonnay and settle in with a good book instead of polluting us with your skirt lifting antics in the hope of drawing a little publicity your way at a time when most Rugby fans don’t give a continental about what’s doing in their own sport.

Whether or not Johns signs with the Waratahs remains to be seen, but the cheap attempt to try and draw some of the limelight away from the Origin series again has Rugby looking like the second rate “sport” it is. It’s no secret Lote Tuqiri wants out of Union but can any NRL club give him the money he is after? That will be the only thing stopping him from returning to League next year. Read next year. Eventually, Lote will be back in the Broncos colours whether it be next year or five years from now. You can’t buy the sort of loyalty that comes with Rugby League. Once it’s in your blood, you’ll never be fully rid of it.

No doubt the Rugby officianados will all be there at Telstra Stadium tonight to watch the first explosive encounter between NSW and Qld. Can’t really blame them can you? It is after all the pinnacle of Australian Sport and an event no other sport can hope to match in terms of pure entertainment value. The AFL tried it and it was a miserable failure whilst the ARU continue to ride league’s coat tails in terms of innovative marketing and the poaching of elite talent. And they are still well behind. The Super 12 final received no free to air coverage but tonight’s Origin match is live and will rate as one of the top five sporting programs for the year, as it always does.

League for all it’s woes is still the greatest game of all and with a crowd of over 70,000 in attendance tonight, people are obviously voting with their feet.

Just on Johns, his star is dimming in league. He is 30 and the one thing Johns had on his side was Newcastle’s inability to win without him. Enter Kurt Gidley. He has risen like a Phoenix from the ashes to establish himself as the new Rugby League messiah in the Hunter.

With the money Johns would command, Newcastle could afford to purchase two representative level footballers and this is not taking into account the status of Ben Kennedy, who is taking up $350,000 of the Knights salary cap and is now in the same boat as Johns, nearing the end of his career and injury prone.

Newcastle are holding all the aces as they have the coach and the junior talent coming through to keep the Knights competitive for the next five years.

If Johns decides to try his hand at Rugby, good luck to him but the thing no one dare whisper in the corridors of power in the NSWRU and ARU is, Johns will be the best in Union in his twilight but League always got the best of Johns in his prime. He played League for the love it, not as a nest egg for retirement or as a step down to prolong his career.

Bring on the gladiators in the sky blue and maroon and let’s not give these sporting pariahs from that other sport any more headlines. This is our time no matter how much they want in on the action.