The entire Rugby "play"was a deliberate strategy by a fading star and a blinkered manager to extract a $1.5mill + payday for another 5-6 years either in the South of France,or worst case Japan.
As an NRL player,he was looking at half the tenure at half the price.Benjis injuries plus an ego unwilling to accept the reality that his strengths were as a broken field runner(one of the best the game has seen),but a very ordinary playmaker,required a dramatic gamble in Rugby to maximise his earning potential long term
A headlining role in the Auckland Blues is absolutely critical to achieving this goal.The Blues (& NZRU)have now leveraged most of his PR value,so now its a matter of adding real value to the Blues…& the coach thinks he's either 3rd or 4th in line at no 10 to do that.
Benji & Tauber decided to roll the dice with Rugby & its probably going to disappoint them.
Only way back is NRL probably...at a fraction of what we offered him.I hope its not WT who out of misaligned loyalty attempt to ressurect his career in 2015-if so,maybe we offer same deal to Ellery Hanley..?
