Mauger coming back.

Excellent news!

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/news/3253244/Mauger-coming-home-wants-All-Blacks-spot-back

And so it begins...

He wont have a chance imo. With Nonu having the most consistant and solid year, only injury will open a door for him in ABs.

Dunno about relying on Nonu to be the sole 2nd 5/8th during a WC campaign. He's too much of a bruiser and we've lacked another tactical kicking option (besides Carter) since.. well 2007. The fact that we persisted with jokers like Stephen Donald and the out-of-form / out-of-depth MacAllister throughout 2009 shows that there's a lack of depth in the mid-field and by adding a true world-class player like Mauger back in the squad it would help alleviate this.

It'll take at least a season to get back into the swing of Southern Hemisphere rugby of course - hopefully the Northern Hemisphere hasn't killed his game too much.

Age shouldn't be too much of a fcator for Mauger either, he was always a player who relied on skill and intelligence rather than speed and the physical aspects. Having said that I hope he's learnt to tackle while he's been overseas.

Unfortunately Mauger has just announced retirement! Persistent back injury

All Blacks stocks are down with this news and that of Hayman (probably) not coming back.

wow that came a bit out of the blue didnt it, it also looked for sure that Hayman would retuurn 2/3 months ago

On the subject of Hayman, are we allowed to feel a little peeved at his decision? His reason for staying in France is supposedly to gather cash for dairy farming, but wasnt the NZRU offer well and truly enough for that? Therfore his decsion to flag helping the the AB's in the next WC is sheer greed, really.

Nah I doubt it man. He'll be getting multi-millions over there, which is probably a good start on a sweet dairy farm in the Naki.. NZRU wouldn't be able to offer anything close to that.

I cant recall the details but maybe someone can. But i think it was in the region of 800k a year vs 1.2 mill a year... 3year deal

So 2.4 mill + whatever else he already has saved over there isnt enough to dairy farm in nz?

anyway....Im not bagging him or anything,,, I really sit on the fence on this one.Im just interested to see what people think this means to the so called value of the jersey

Oh...and whether this will engineer another "Carter-Claus"....and the NZRL will find a way to select him anyway

excuse triple posts, no milk in the house = no coffee!

Personally I reckon they should amend the Carter-Clause to be the Carter-Hayman-clause.. so basically they can do whatever the fuck they want and still be selected for the ABs

Don't worry boys, I'm six weeks away from full recovery.

Gonna reinvent yourself as a prop on your comeback Roman? Sounds good! Get some pies down you bhoy!

Second 5/8 actually. But I was taking piss, considering that I didn't even last preseason games and am broken again. lol