Chris Rattue: Cash is only thing going for King Carlos

Carlos Spencer has taken the money, but can he still run? Photo / Getty Images

There's gold up that hill and Carlos Spencer has pocketed what is being called one of the richest deals in South African rugby by heading to the high plateau of Johannesburg.

Spencer will ride into town on a horse called Silver however, because the one time darling of the Blues will be a Lone Ranger at the Lions, one of the worst Super 14 outfits.

King Carlos has taken the money, but can he still run?

And will he run well enough to embarrass the Blues, who turned down his services and ended up with the displaced Cantabrian Stephen Brett instead.

We're about to find out but you would have to have major doubts whether the 34-year-old will be able to leave the Blues red faced, having quit English club rugby to return to his happy hunting grounds of a very long time ago in the colours of an old enemy.

Of all the places to choose, Johannesburg is among the least likely to allow the former All Black first five-eighths to find a new dawn, a brief reminder of his past glories, before he rides off into the sunset.

At least he'll get game time, but the Super 14 record book says that the money will turn out to be the only good note.

The Cats/Lions record is so bad it makes the Chiefs look good - on average the Jo'burg Jokes have won about two games per season during the past eight years and stick to the bottom region of the table with the sort of unbreakable force that exists between Tiger Woods and America's cocktail waitresses.

When the Blues announced they'd signed up first five-eighths Brett, a deal laced with a barely concealed reluctance from a player who had quite wisely set his sights on a career with the Crusaders, you had to wonder if the ever disappointing Auckland-based mob might have been better off backing Spencer's bid to become the Homecoming King.

Even at the age of 34, and despite not having played in the Super 14 since 2005, you could mount a decent argument that Spencer - who at least treasured his place in Auckland rugby - would be a better bet than Brett, who has been frog-marched into a temporary home so his career doesn't croak it.

Neither player ranks or ranked as a long-term Blues proposition.

They represent temporary solutions to a long-standing problem.

Father time may have already started to overtake Spencer's dazzling feet, and at the first opportunity Brett will be back to the Crusaders before you can say Cathedral Square.

From what we've seen of him so far, Brett is a poor man's Spencer and rather than being chucked in the deep Blue end, there was no better place in world rugby for him to iron out the kinks than with his Crusaders.

The pecking order is a tall order though in Dan Carter country, so Brett has headed north to play for a team as flaky as he is.

You sense the strategies of the New Zealand Rugby Union somewhere in this.

The NZRU pays the players' wages, and whereas Spencer is a long-lost All Black cause, Brett might be needed in the distant future.

Under the current regime, there is virtually no room for the sort of maverick deal that would have brought an old warhorse like Spencer - no longer an All Black prospect - home.

The deal is everything these days and Spencer, despite initial noises to the contrary, would probably not have come back for a song. Auckland never showed any overwhelming desire to take up his offer.

And so, negotiations never even went far enough for it to be said that the deal went sour, which was disappointing.

His return would have been a wonderful story for a beleaguered rugby city, and not without merit because Spencer would have brought an awful lot of experience and pride into a dysfunctional outfit.

Then again, the Super 14 game is played at a break-neck speed, and Spencer is no spring chicken. As we saw with Stacey Jones and the Warriors, there is the potential for such comebacks to go horribly wrong, or at least to be perceived as such.

Spencer, the big money signing, may feel more than just the heat of the Jo'burg sun on his back if the Lions struggle.

You could forgive the Blues for being cautions, yet I still feel that Spencer would have offered the Blues more than Brett.

My guess is the Blues will be spared any blushes however, that his arrival in Johannesburg will have all the impact of waving a magic wand at a car crash.

Had a much stronger Super 14 side taken a chance on him for this season, this could have been a very different story.

The arrival of the respected Dick Muir as their new coach is a fillip, but the Lions are mainly no-names with a losing habit, they have lost the powerhouse Springbok centre Jaque Fourie to the Stormers, and will be lucky to beat their 2009 record of four wins.

The surprising part of the two-year deal is that Spencer is being considered as a Lions coach in 2011.

Carlos Spencer the coach? Most of us hadn't contemplated that one, but it is an interesting proposition, and the game could do with some of his magic sprinkled about.

Let's stick to the immediate season for now, as our man sets about kicking the Lions into life in this soccer-mad city, the place where the World Cup will kick off in June.

At least his return has added a tantalising aspect to the competition.

There will be plenty among us who can't wait to see how he plays, whether there is still any devilment in his heart and enough energy left in the hands and feet. Spencer had his critics both fair and foul, and especially among those who barracked for Andrew Mehrtens' All Black claims, but let's also remember that at his peak, there has never been a more enchanting sight in rugby, or one that influenced young and old to truly enjoy watching and playing the game.

The odds on Spencer doing much with these tame Lions are not wonderful.

The Blues will be having a nervous peek though.