The League to Union Disaster: Not Bad as Disasters Go

The recent departure of two high-profile Australian league-to-union converts from rugby union, Lote Tuqiri and Timana Tahu, has many deeming Australian rugby union's practice of "poaching" high-profile league players over the past few years an epic failure. The same might be heard elsewhere, such as in England where Andy Farrell did not dominate at the national level after switching to union or in Ireland where Brian Carney's swap to rugby union only lasted two years and was also low-key in terms of performance.

Andrew Slack, who knows a bit about rugby union as a former Wallabies captain and selector, begs to differ. He argues that in general (with exceptions), the code crossers have done well for his country by starring in a number of test matches and hitting other performance goals.

It's a compelling point, and similar arguments might be made for other nations. Jason Robinson left league in England to become a legend in union, and Farrell made a contribution by managing to play for his country in union despite being well out of his prime before the switch. Brad Thorn has starred for New Zealand in union and Australia in league, swapping codes and countries more than once in an ongoing career. (In fact, as much talk as there is about failed code switches, it is nation switches that may be the some teams' bigger worry.)

Another issue worth mentioning is that other code transfers who continue to shine in union after switching before their prime, such as Berrick Barnes and Rocky Elsom, also seem to be quietly ignored in the criticism. In fact, the Wallaby Tri-Nations squad a year ago had five former NRL players in it if one counts the oft-forgotten Barnes and Elsom.

With all the money involved in some of the code swaps, there is plenty of room for debate on what counts as a good investment, just as there will be with Karmichael Hunt's impending change to Aussie rules. That said, it's hard to look at moments like these as evidence for total failure: