Chris Rattue: Signing a win for failing Warriors

Cartoon / Rod Emmerson

Hail the Warriors - but our befuddled league club should think again before getting too smug.

The signing of Feliti Mateo, the gangly Parramatta backrower, is one of their best moves in years.

I could scarcely believe it when the news broke this week. Of all the players in the NRL, I long believed that the versatile Mateo was the very man the Warriors needed to unlock their talents.

Forget the talk about the importance of a genius ball player at five-eighth. Such players are few and far between these days and Ockers who fit this bill won't sign for the wobbly Warriors because there will always be enough money to keep them across the Tasman.

The style of our power-packed junior football means New Zealand won't produce great playmaking halves in our low-grade game.

The halves are not the be all and end all of creativity anyway. A terrific ball playing forward can be just as influential.

And while Mateo can play in No 6, I believe he works best as a forward, although the Warriors might not see it that way given their five-eighth problems.

Mateo is the best news since Ali Lauitiiti in his sadly brief prime.

It is a magical signing, and if the Warriors were also to secure the rampant Melbourne and Kiwi forward Adam Blair, the picture at this city's beleaguered league outfit would suddenly improve out of sight.

News that Micheal Luck, one of the finest players this club has ever had, is staying is also fantastic.

He is among the most committed and courageous players in the NRL, an absolute credit to league and himself.

The Warriors' fans endure a roller coaster ride but they get more than their money's worth out of Luck, who sticks his body, and his blood-drenched noggin, on the line every week.

I don't know how players like Luck manage to do what they do in that bone-crunching world. As for Krisnan Inu - the other new signing from Parramatta - who would know?

The Warriors are not noted for turning attitudes around. The gap between Inu's talent and performances suggests he does not have the required mindset.

The new signings will be portrayed as a coup but they are another indication that NRL boss David Gallop's beloved salary cap is a pile of junk.

Parramatta is furious at losing Mateo, a club junior, and so they should be. They couldn't match the Warriors' offer under the cap system. Blair would come to Auckland under similar circumstances.

In other words, the Warriors are bludging off a dud system because they are failing to produce their own NRL-class players.

Still, Mateo's arrival is worth celebrating.

However, as the Warriors have proven time and time again, big name recruits are no guarantee of titles or sustained success.

The arrival of the two Eels, and maybe Blair, and the imminent retirement of Steve Price, signals another era has ended in probable failure. So there must be major doubts whether Ivan Cleary should remain in charge.

The Warriors have been erratic, dishevelled and soft for too long.

Cleary has had some success but I no longer believe he is a coach capable of winning the NRL title.

That should be the question the club asks itself in deciding if he stays or goes.

I lost faith last season after a series of pathetic performances and there are worrying signs again.

The biggest signing of all will be the next coach.

* The Lions should be biffed out of rugby's new Super 15 and South Africa ordered to start up a new franchise that deserves a place in what is regarded as an elite competition.

How can the pussycats from Johannesburg justify their retention? So Johannesburg is a soccer city - then leave it to soccer if a rugby team can't do any better than these fools.

Since 2002, the Jo'burg Jokes have won, on average, just two games a year.

This year, they have been beaten every time, on average by more than 20 points.

Their rescue plan involved paying a ridiculous amount of money to the elderly Carlos Spencer, who still has certain abilities but was never going to revive this car crash of a rugby team singlehandedly.

You also wonder how long the NZRU can justify propping up the Hopeless Highlanders.

* The Super 14 has reached a thrilling climax with cut-throat battles for semifinal places.

It has been an odd season, of often dull rugby but with exceptional exceptions thrown in. The match between the Bulls and Crusaders in Pretoria was a stunner, featuring a fantastic and controversial conclusion.

More games like that would get this punter back.

Even though the Crusaders are not the team of old since the maestro Robbie Deans departed, they still have a tough core and are New Zealand's best title hope.

They face an uphill battle though - literally. The Crusaders would almost certainly have to travel back to the Pretoria high lands, and that would drain their stamina. Since the revival of South African rugby, the key to winning the Super rests on home advantage in the finals.

This was not so important when the Australian Brumbies were the major title challengers from outside New Zealand.

* Colin Cooper is leaving the Hurricanes, and the time has come for Ian Foster to do the same at the Chiefs.

Foster got the Chiefs halfway up the mountain, but this eternal failure of a team has crashed into oblivion yet again. The coach's rushed re-appointments have always amazed me, even by New Zealand rugby's whacky standards, because the frivolous Chiefs play a lot of stupid rugby.

They do not produce enough quality players from within, either - instead relying on lucky high-class handouts such as Mils Muliaina, and everyone else's off cuts. This has got them nowhere.

* Excuse me if I don't shed a tear for Aaron Scott, the All White who missed out on the squad for the World Cup finals.

Yes, coach Ricki Herbert did promise that all of the 18-man squad that prepared against Bahrain would go to South Africa. It was a rash and unwise statement to make, and one he continued to make long after the Bahrain celebrations died down and even after Tommy Smith became available.

Herbert trapped himself in a corner he did not need to be in. It subsequently meant he needed to do a u-turn, especially when Winston Reid came on board.

But players at this level all know the score - nothing is assured and selection is never guaranteed if you don't have performances on the board.

A small group of our All Whites, led by Tim Brown and Ben Sigmund, ran their own training camp in Melbourne during the A-league off-season.

They included David Mulligan, who was also in the squad against Bahrain. I recall Sigmund telling me that Mulligan - a Phoenix reject - knew that if he didn't put in the extra work, he probably wouldn't make it to South Africa, either.

Mulligan clearly knew the score, even though Herbert had yet to publicly reverse his stance at the time.

Scott, like Mulligan, didn't actually play against Bahrain.

There are members of Herbert's squad who rank as the luckiest men in history to be going to the World Cup. Aaron Clapham must still be pinching himself.

These players have won the lottery, thanks to a friendly qualification route, the self-made career of the All Whites' driving force Ryan Nelsen in particular, and a decent slice of fortune against Bahrain.

Whatever the reasons for Scott's problems at Waitakere, a player who can't even make a New Zealand club lineup can hardly expect to be on the plane to the World Cup.

A disappointed Scott isn't complaining - his attitude has been exemplary and he is supporting his All Whites mates - so good on him for that. And he has time to be part of our next World Cup effort.