LEEDS Rhinos ended speculation yesterday that Danny McGuire, their outstanding young Great Britain half back, could follow Andrew Farrell into rugby union by agreeing an extended contract with the player dubbed as rugby league’s answer to Jonny Wilkinson until the end of 2009.
McGuire, 22, who turned England heads at last month’s joint training sessions with the Rhinos, said: “I’m a rugby league lad through and through. Rugby union is probably not my type of game and I’m really happy here. I’ve ambitions at Leeds over the next five years to win as many things as we can, and with Great Britain to take on the Australians and beat them.”
With Farrell, 29, the Wigan Warriors and Great Britain captain, looking almost certain to accept an estimated £600,000 offer by the Rugby Football Union, Gary Hetherington, the Leeds chief executive, described McGuire’s long-term commitment as a “statement of intent” by the jewel in the champion club’s crown, especially after his remarkable tally of 39 tries last year. He said: “Danny represents a big part of our present and future. Knowing that he’s going to be at the club and in the game for such a length of time, I think will give comfort to Leeds Rhinos fans and rugby league fans generally.”
All that appears to be holding up Farrell’s switch is the question of which of the 12 Zurich Premiership clubs will jointly fund his contract with the Twickenham authorities. Hetherington has definitely ruled out Leeds Tykes.
Ray French, the former dual-code England and Great Britain forward and BBC TV’s league commentator, has accused the RFU of “losing their senses” over the latest overture to the 13-man code.
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“It’s a gamble the RFU simply cannot win, even if Farrell, at 32 and suffering from two dicky knees, lifts the World Cup in 2007,” French said. “If an ageing league player, however great, can master the complexities of a new code in less than 12 months, what does this say about the much-hyped technical skills at rucks, mauls, scrums and lineouts?
“The message this sends out is that you should develop your skills in league if you want to play union at the highest level. Where once many of the most bigoted followers of the union code poured scorn and contempt on league, now they seem to worship at its feet.”
Jerome Guisset is poised to make the cross-code journey back to league to join Wigan from Brive, and a spell with France’s sevens squad, as a front-row replacement for the injured Luke Davico, whose contract was cancelled last week.
Despite denials, rumours linking the Warriors with a move for Sonny Bill Williams, the teenage New Zealand back-row forward, persist. “Lots of people, strangely including chief executives of other Super League clubs, are suggesting that we are about to sign him. This is simply not true,” Maurice Lindsay, the Wigan chairman, said.
Hetherington admitted Leeds’s interest in Williams, but balked at annual wages of £300,000. “I don’t believe anybody can make that sort of offer,” he said. “For a club to put 25 per cent of its resources into one player means it would have very little left to spend on its other players,.”
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Warrington Wolves have suspended Phil Berry, 19, a first-team squad member, pending the outcome of an RFL investigation into a positive drugs test.