Money Walks
Chev Walker is the latest rugby league star to switch codes to union, having been poached by England head coach Andy Robinson. The lure of wealth, fame, and an international squad place is too much for top league players. But where will it end, Oliver Pickup asks, and at what cost to rugby league?
The Professional Era
Chev Walker’s transfer to Bath RFC from Leeds Rhinos, finalised on June 6, is the latest in a line of high-profile signings to rugby union from league. When union went professional in 1995, it paved the way for a number of league stars to switch codes. In 1996 two stars of rugby league - Jason Robinson and Henry Paul - were signed by Bath RFC, yet the moves were engineered from Twickenham by the RFU.
Phil Clarke, who until March 2006 was Great Britain manager, and played in the same World Cup final in 1995 as Jason Robinson before he made the switch, views Clive Woodward as the prime mover. It had been head coach Woodward who had been handed the task of ensuring a smooth transition for the RFU as it entered the professional era. Woodward was attracted to top rugby league players as they were fitter, quicker and stronger than the union players at his disposal, who were perhaps sluggish from the hangover of the amateur era.
“Clive Woodward wanted players like Henry Paul and Jason Robinson - he was just so adamant; he was obsessed by them,” Clarke says. “He got the RFU hierarchy to fund the transfers for them to come through.” Paul went on to win six caps for England as centre, and Robinson - through his 39 caps, including the 2003 World Cup win - became the most recognisable England rugby union player, behind Johnny Wilkinson. The plan had worked, and the RFU became more willing to part with their money so that other league stars could be tempted across to union.
RFU Wealth
Since the inception of the professional union game, the RFU have become much successful than the RLU financially. Lucrative internationals at Twickenham, where 75,000 sell-out crowds are charged approximately £50 per head, plus vast TV revenues, have allowed the RFU to part-fund a number of league to union transfers. There is also a tangible difference in top level salaries between the codes. As Phil Clarke explains, “In the English RL the salary cap is £1.8m, and that is for the top 25 players who make up the Great Britain squad, netting them between £40,000 and £50,000 per annum.” Although the RFU’s £2.4m salary cap is spread between 45 players, meaning the average player earns £50,000 per annum, the top players are paid slightly more.
“Every time a player wins a union cap they are paid £8,000 just to play. In league, the players are might be given £500 if they lose, or just £1,500 if they win,” says Clarke. Further, the commercial possibilities in union are more rewarding. Whereas Andy Farrell - who before his move to Saracens RFU was the undisputed star of the Super League and GB - would earn £50,000 through off-field endorsements when he was GB captain, Johnny Wilkinson would be raking in hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Andy Robinson looked to league
This increase in salary, and the bank-rolling-tactics of the RFU have doubtless been a major factor in persuading the top league players to change codes. In the last 15 months the RFU have helped Saracens sign Andy Farrell, and Bath sign Chev Walker, who will move after the Super League season in November. These last two signings were overseen by Andy Robinson, the present England head coach and former assistant to Woodward. The trend of poaching top league stars, although started by Woodward, has been borne by Robinson, who fully admits his intentions. “I have been tracking (Chev Walker) for some time and he has a lot to offer rugby union,” Robinson told BBC Sport after the centre signed for Bath. “He’s a player we were looking to pick up, but he will have to perform first,” Robinson said. “If he does, we could see him having the potential to go into the World Cup squad.”
After a poor showing in the past two Six Nations Championships, Robinson needed to boost his England Elite squad before the World Cup in France, which starts in September 2007. Phil Clarke agrees that Robinson has addressed where there are gaps in the team, and has earmarked RL players to fill them. So far back row Andy Farrell has been unlucky with injury, and has not yet started for Saracens, but Robinson is still keen regardless. “Farrell is still a realistic prospect for the World Cup. Once he is fit, I still think he can make a big impact,” Robinson said.In 23-year-old Chev Walker, the feeling is that Robinson has the answer to England’s centre problems. Phil Clarke says that the RFU see 6ft 3in Walker as an English Tana Umaga: “He is a powerful, strong, hard-running, big centre.” Umaga himself had transferred to union from league, and went on to captain the All Blacks to victory over the Lions in 2005.
Clarke points out that rugby league is increasingly producing large, athletic players. “The way RL is going, size is almost priority criterion,” he says. “Watching Wendell Sailor and Lote Tuqiri playing Super14s, it is their size, as well as their footwork and speed, that make them very dangerous, and Chev has elements of those,” Clarke suggests.
League players also succeed in union, “Because they have played a game which has more time and space,” Clarke reasons. “RL gives you more chances to run with the ball, and players run harder and find the gaps much easier.”
The Australian example
Australia are the best example of where players have come from league to union with success, and England are following the blueprint. Until recently, the Wallaby three-quarters line - Sailor, Tuqiri and Matt Rodgers - were all former league stars. Further, in Matt Rodgers, they have one of the most versatile backs in the world - and this in a sport where positional specificity it deemed to be key. In rugby league, where positions are less rigid, players are used to developing a number of skills, and this is particularly attractive to union selectors. Similarly Jason Robinson played for England in a number of positions. In the same breath, league forwards often find it harder to adapt to union, having not been disciplined in set-plays like line-outs and scrums.
Walker’s move to Bath rules him out of the tri-nations series, which is another dent to Brian Noble’s GB squad, after the desertion of skipper and talisman Farrell. The money-waving tactics of the RFU do not bode well for RL, but there is little that can be done to halt proceedings. Andy Robinson and the RFU are adamant that there are no more joint-funding operations for league players in the pipeline, but it seems further pickings will be hard for union to ignore. In the professional era of rugby union, money talks loudest.
Labels: Chev Walker, England, Rugby league, rugby union
