Pay dispute sees Wallaby Filipo Daugunu miss second straight game
Star recruit Filipo Daugunu won’t be available for Melbourne’s Super Rugby Pacific clash with the table-topping Hurricanes despite returning to training after sitting out the last round over a pay dispute.
The outside back was a late withdrawal last Friday against his former team Queensland due to an outstanding relocation fee owed by the club.
The debt wasn’t settled before the Rebels went into voluntary administration and while Rugby Australia (RA) have guaranteed the players’ contracts this season and put the coaches on short-term deals, this payment falls outside of that.
The future of Melbourne in the competition rests in the hands of RA, with the club in massive debt.
Daugunu, who played for Australia A last year and has seven Test caps, was back at training on Tuesday but too late to be considered for the Hurricanes match in Palmerston North, with the team departing Wednesday.
“It’s between him and his agent and Rugby Australia and they’ve been trying to work it out,” Rebels coach Kevin Foote told AAP.
“Filipo actually came to training today which is great – he’s not up for selection this week because it’s too late as we’ve already finished our training week but just to have him back is very pleasing for us.”
Suffering a heavy loss to the Reds, Foote said post match they had a poor preparation without alluding to Daugunu, with the club stating his absence was for “personal reasons”.
They are currently seventh with two wins and two losses with Foote and his assistant coaches trying to keep the distraction of an uncertain future at bay.
RA boss Phil Waugh told AAP on Monday the decision on the survival of the club was taking longer than he would have liked.
“No news is not good news in this scenario because you actually start living in the future and that’s not good either,” said Foote, who was re-signed on a four-month deal when RA took over the club in the pre-season.
“You start worrying about things you don’t know anything about.
“There’s only three pay cheques left and when you think about that it’s very concerning.
“But the last thing I want is that they tell us that we’re not going to be around because then there could be a mass exodus or people thinking about jumping off.
“We’re still in the belief that we’ll be around and we can keep this group together because it’s a very talented group and we can do good things.”
Comments on RugbyPass
“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
1 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
3 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
3 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
3 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to comments