Wallabies coach Dave Rennie has opened up about his role in the Joseph Suaalii saga, laughing off reports of rugby's multi-million dollar contract offer but vowing to fight hard for the next schoolboy footballing freak.
Suaalii is touted as one of the most exciting prospects in recent history and eventually chose the NRL over rugby last year following a high profile and messy tug of war.
The supremely talented 17-year-old played both rugby and league as a Sydney schoolboy and Rugby Australia made him an ultimately unsuccessful offer after Rennie and director of rugby Scott Johnson paid him and his family a visit at home last year.
Reflecting back on the media maelstrom, Rennie laughs at what he says were often inaccurate reports – and gives his full account of what actually went down.
"Some people put things in the media to make their case sound stronger," Rennie told Wide World of Sports.
"But when I was over in January, Scott Johnson's been driving the connection with Joseph and I happened to be here when he was going to see him so I jumped in the car and had a chance to talk with him about a few things and talked to his family. It's pretty daunting, you've got a young man getting offered massive sums of money in league and realistically, while it was implied that we had similar offers, we were poles apart to be honest.
"And that's the way it had to be in the current climate. We have a lot of players on reduced wages and so on and then there's stories about massive sums of money being thrown at Joseph that weren't true. But I think everything that could have been done was done. We tried to get a strong connection, we came up with a reasonable package and it doesn't mean he's lost to the game."
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Rugby will always win some, lose some against its NRL big brother but Rennie says the sport has some valuable cards to play in the future.
"There are a handful of boys who have come out of school, rugby boys who have been picked up by league or AFL and we can't match that sort of money that's been thrown at them," the Kiwi says.
"So we've got to do it through relationships, sit down with them early and give them an understanding of the game because it is very global. So the opportunity to play here, hopefully make the Wallabies, travel the world and then beyond that the chance to play in France or the UK or Japan where there are massive sums of money on offer – well in excess of what the NRL or AFL would pay individuals.
"I guess it's the bigger picture isn't it. It is what it is over here.
"I guess in New Zealand the best kids come through and want to be All Blacks and over here there's a really competitive market. But the other side of the coin is while we do lose a bit of cream at the top, there is 26 million people in this country.
"There are a lot of numbers. I watched TSS (The Southport School) play BBC (Brisbane Boys' College) a few months before we assembled and gee, there's some fantastic kids on the park there. A couple of them have gone to league but a number of those boys have stayed in our game and that's pretty exciting I reckon."
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