Rugby League: Secret list targets 50 league 'defectors'

SYDNEY - Five New Zealanders, including four Kiwis, are among 50 rugby league players on a list targeting potential defectors to rugby union.

Test players Matt Rua and Tasesa Lavea (Melbourne Storm), Willie Talau (Bulldogs) and Tony Puletua (Penrith) are among names compiled by Australian Rugby Union-contracted talent scout Michael O'Connor.

Newcastle's New Zealand winger, Timana Tahu, is also on the confidential list, which came to light over the weekend.

Others targeted by rugby union include the Penrith centre Ryan Girdler, Brisbane's Fijian winger, Lote Tuqiri, and the Sharks' Mat Rogers, Russell Richardson and Colin Best.

O'Connor, a former dual Wallaby and Kangaroo international, sent the list to ARU high performance manager Jeff Miller at the end of last season.

The two men played key roles in the ARU's signing this month of Brisbane Broncos winger Wendell Sailor, who was not on the list because his asking price was thought to be too high.

The memo was headed: "Current National Rugby League players who have been identified with a view to monitoring for a possible switch to rugby union prior to 2003."

O'Connor has confirmed the memo, but said the list was outdated and had been replaced by another.

"On the new list, some of those players are not on there because opinions have changed," he said yesterday.

"Some players not on that list are on the new one."

O'Connor said he did not expect mass defections, believing that to entice just three players over to union would be a coup.

NRL chief executive David Moffett said the list was "another kite-flying exercise" to distract attention from the weekend's NRL opening weekend.

"It has just become so boring," he said. "Every time we have a major game or a major event on, out they trot with something new."

Roosters chief executive Bernie Gurr said NRL clubs had to be wary, but he believed the potential impact of union on league had been "overblown a bit."

"Both codes have limited resources and I don't think there is going to be an exodus of players from league."

- NZPA