Henry Paul off to Union

[G@v]

<h5 align=left>Bradford Bulls have confirmed that Henry Paul will leave the club at the end of the season to take up a contract with Gloucester Rugby Union Club. </h5> <h5 align=left>Gloucester are expected to officially announce their capture at a press conference next week.</h5> <h5 align=left>It seems the financial support from the RFU offered to clubs wishing to sign League players was an influential factor in this deal. Henry Paul's agent had told the Bulls some time ago that the package the Bulls had offered was acceptable, obviously, this wasn't the case.
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[Kipper]

What can I say? Does this mean he's going to try and get into the English side through the "grannie rule"? I doubt he'd get much of a look in anyway -fly half is one of the positionsEnglandalready has agreat young player in.

I just can't believeHenry Paul would really do this. A guy with so much league talent that will never be truly tested.One of the most openlypatrioticpublic figures in NZ chucking in the chance to represent his country in any code, destined tospend the rest of his playing dayskickingfor touchto the muted applause of a couple of thousand people braving the bleak,wintry weather each week.

I don'treally want to see a Henry Paul Haters Club springing from this, but what a sad anticlimax.

 

[ozbash]

bloody hell henry. he has led us all a merry dance
is this for real gav?

 

[G@v]

It's for real, even the Bulls websitehas announced it. He sure has led us a merry dance! I thought that he had finally put paid to all these rumours about switching codes, now he's done an about turn.

Kipper's probably rightin that he could be after a spot in the England side. Fly-half shouldn't be a problem, he could end up playing in the centres couldn't he?

Who the hell are Gloucester?

What a waste of talent!

 

[Cronulla_Mania]

What a disgrace...Im guessing this is 100% accurate, although im not going to definitely say that he has gone, mainly because of all the previous stories about him. If we were to believe all the media reports, he would be playing in a bulldogs jersey, a new zealand warriors jersey and a canberra jersey.
But the similarities between Paul and Sailor are striking. They are both after the spotlight, don't give a rats about the game and in my opinion are sellouts. They don't need the money, ABSOLUTE CRAP, both are multi millionaires....
I may infuriate a few NZ fans on this board here but i really thought that Paul wasn't trying in the test match the other week and didn't look like he wanted to be there. So if he wants to have that attitude in a test match, well then he can go f..k himself
MFC.

 

[Warrior]

What a f**kin' moron. This guyhas to be one ofthe biggest hypocrites going around at the moment. He should wear a Broncos jersey, it would suite him at the moment. The thing I can't get over is the fact he signed a contract worth $500,000 a season, sure there may have been perks in there [you would hope so]. The Buydogs weren't offering too much less than that&amp; Bradford were offering $700,000. What the f**ks the deal with that????

It makes me sick. I've never been this sick before since Stone Cold Steve Austin aligned himself with Vince McMahon.

SELLOUT3:16

 

[Cronulla_Mania]

LOL Warrior....but a big tip....wrestling is ...... pre-meditated!
I agree but, this guy is playing the media similar to how wendy did earlier in the year
MFC.

 

[ozbash]

moff, i was talking to yakstorm on icq this morning and i said the same thing.henry,s heart wasnt in it for the test.
a very dissapointing move on his part and i bet the bulls are fair spewing.

 

[G@v]

Looking at the Bulls message board, it seems that a minority of fans would like to see HP dropped from the team immediately........labelling him a traitor.

 

[ozbash]

just as well he isnt coached by a certain mr w.bennet.
good luck to him,but it is a betrayal

 

[Marcus]

MFC, Union can offer them more than just $$$. Listen to what he has to say.

http://news6.thdo.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1455000/video/_1457334_paul_edit_vi.ram

 

[G@v]

Marcus, all I can suggest to you is to consider the story of the Trojan horse.....League was only interested in RU players, your coaches had nothing to offer!

Do you expect HP to have said anything different?

 

[Cronulla_Mania]

Marcus, he sounded like a puppet. Another mouthpiece for rugby union, i can accept that they have more money but alot of the so called 'international' opportunities are grossly exaggerated....
Talking out of his rear-end, the biggest fallacy that exists in the sports world at the moment is that union is a global game (2nd to soccer)...Mate, id love you to prove me wrong. They quote that over 100 countries play the game...id like to estimate that 80 of those so called 'rugby countries' are counted in the figures even though they may only have 2-3 university teams. If you know the history betweent the 2 codes, and some union types didn't take the actions that they did throughout the 20th century, then league could easily be in many countries now that union occupies..
MFC.

 

[legend]

I am sure league would be happy to co-exist with union but with union always taking the hostile approach and continually trying to white ant league, union shows to me the inferiority complex and real fear they have of RL and if Union let RL get the upper hand Union would be confined to a same target audience as polo and la crosse. Sure, they are both upper class wealthy sports but both have very little exposure on a world scale and are hardly recognised outside caviar circles.

 

[Marcus]

MFC, Rugby Union does have international opportunities. Just look at the RWC. The RWC 99 made70 million pounds (AUD$183,000,000) and was shown in 209 countries around the world with a cumulative audience of 3.1 billion. It is also the 3rd biggest sporting event outside soccer and the olympics.

(http://www.irfb.com/www.irfb.com/report.htm#sec2)

Rugby Union is played in over 110 countries. Sure 20 of them actually have proper competitions, but the same could be said about soccer. But the fact is rugby is a growing popularity around the world. The US are going to have a fully professional comp going in 2003. These will be city based teams and they already have support from corporations and TV entities. At the moment they already have over 1000 rugby clubs around the country plus the Rugby Super League (highest amateur comp), and many high schools are playing the sport. Rugby is also played buy many college gridiron players in the off-season just to maintain fitness levels. With all this info, all indications point to Rugby reaching great heights in America.

legend,

"...union always taking the hostile approach and continually trying to white ant league.."

Come on, thats paranoia! Leagues fault comes from within. League keeps on saying that they have the greatest game. Well if thats the case then it should be flourishing, but it aint. Don't start buy saying it was Rugby that killed League in France and Italy. Thats justs a cop out. I still see League in England. Plus there are another 200 countries around the world that League could have expanded the game - but they couldn't.

 

[Cronulla_Mania]

Revenue and profits are 2 different figures Marcus. Come to me with a final figure, not that one. Revenue means nothing without taking expenses into account. Are you saying that over 1/2 of the worlds population watched this world cup (3.1bn)?? Come on, it may have had a potential viewing audience of that much but in reality, they would have struggled to have more then 1/2 a billion people watching it. How can it be bigger then the cricket world cup?? Cricket is the national sport of India, who alone have a population of over 1bn, with a % of them being cricket mad...
No No No. Soccer has organised competitions in all corners of the globe. I made the point that the extent of union activity in 80 out of those 100 countries was a university team or 2. And this is not far off the truth...
"At the moment they already have over 1000 rugby clubs around the country plus the Rugby Super League (highest amateur comp), and many high schools are playing the sport. Rugby is also played buy many college gridiron players in the off-season just to maintain fitness levels. With all this info, all indications point to Rugby reaching great heights in America" - Quote Marcus
All generalisations...I see no proof of this, where do you quote these statistics from? I have no problem with people coming in here, but from what you said about league in France and Italy, me suspects that you came across from rugby.com.au....am i right? And no, its not a cop-out, read the book by Mike Reylance (sp?) about the history of the 2 games in Europe and then make an informed decision...
MFC.

 

[Marcus]

MFC, goto the link I pasted. It has the full report on RWC 99.

Are you saying that over 1/2 of the worlds population watched this world cup (3.1bn)??

I never said 3.1bn people around the world watched RWC. I saida cumulative audience of 3.1 billion. RWC 99 was played in a 5 week period, and games were only played on Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon. That means it was shown4 days a week, times that by 5 you get 20 viewing days. Divide that by 3.1 billion and you get the average viewing attendence of RWC 99 on game days.

3.1 billion / 20 viewing days = 155 million

MFC, you want proof. Glad you asked. Below is the Rugby Super League site in America.

http://www.premier-rugby.com/