The Sports Corner

Giteau’s forbidden $10 million French opportunity

The rugby world was stunned on Saturday just before Australia lined up to play Wales in Cardiff.

Wallaby star Matt Giteau confirmed that he had been offered a four year $10 million deal with Bayonne in the French provincial competition.

Giteau confirmed that he had met with Bayonne’s billionaire owner Alain Afflelou in the days leading up to the Wallabies test against the French in Paris and the stunning offer was put forward. If Giteau were to accept, he would become the highest paid player in world rugby, a substantial raise on All Blacks flyhalf Dan Carter’s reported one year $1.5 million contract to play with Perpignan this season.

Giteau told French newspaper Midi Olympique, “after the tour, I am going to discuss with the federation to see if it will authorise me to get some experience in France like what the NZRU did with Carter. It would be fantastic.”

“I adore your country, your way of life, your food.”

The difference between Carter and Giteau is the New Zealand Rugby Union (”NZRU”) gave Carter a one season sabbatical from his otherwise binding commitment to the NZRU to take up the opportunity to play in France.

The one season sabbatical will mean Carter misses next years Tri-Nations tournament but should not result in Carter missing any other international games and not hamper his preparation as a key cog to the All Blacks hopes at the 2011 World Cup which they are hosting. The NZRU was concerned enough by the Perpignan offer it did not want to be placed in the position of alienating the world’s best flyhalf.

Giteau on the other hand is contract for another three years to the Australian Rugby Union (”ARU”) and they have made it clear he will not be released or granted a Carter-like sabbatical prior to 2011 World Cup. Giteau has one more year contracted to the Western Force which should have seen him one of the highest paid players in world rugby.

However, third party endorsement deals which were used as an incentive to get Giteau to leave the Canberra based Brumbies fell through last season leaving him with a loss of earnings of approximately $1.6 million. Regardless of the endorsements it would seem unlikely that the Force or ARU would allow Giteau to break his contract to take up the Bayonne opportunity.

Any thoughts of Giteau making a stunning defection to French rugby like that of Kiwi league star Sonny Bill Williams can be tempered when one understands that Giteau would almost certainly be banned from future international rugby by the IRB and his French side and ultimately the French national team could be penalised and barred from international competition for failure to respect the contract rights of another IRB nation. Obviously such a situation is very unlikely to escalate to that kind of extreme.

But it should be sufficient concern to all of the Southern Hemisphere clubs that big money contracts are being fielded by their players by French teams. The Wallabies toured Europe without one of their young stars in flanker Rocky Elsom who was ineligible to be selected, having already taken up an offer to play for one season in France for a reported $1 million. Elsom was off contract with the ARU and able to make the decision, but has also stressed he only wished to play for one season in France and then return to the Super 14 and Australia so he was available for future test matches and the 2011 World Cup.

The ARU of course is in a position where it could possibly alienate its star player three years away from the next World Cup by not allowing him to at least take up a one year deal in France. However, such is Giteau’s importance to the Wallabies they are unwilling to let their star get away that easily. The ARU has to also be worried that by allowing Giteau to take a sabbatical it will open the floodgates for French teams to approach contracted players with inflated one year contracts. The ARU is not keen to see those floodgates open, having only had to look at the troubles rugby league clubs in Australia have had since French rugby clubs turned their attention to Australia. Because the codes are under separate administration the IRB will not sanction a rugby league player who breaches his contract to join rugby, as can been seen in the Sonny Bill Williams saga. 

Perhaps ARU Chairman John O’Neill was the clearest when asked to comment about Giteau’s French offer.

“As far as we’re concerned, he is contracted with the ARU until the World Cup and the Force until the end of next season,” said O’Neill. “He is not going anywhere.”