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I'll bleed for Maroon Jersey - Tuqiri
* By Jessica Halloran
* From: The Sunday Telegraph
* April 11, 2010 12:01AM
LOTE Tuqiri pauses and wonders if he did the right thing by switching to rugby union seven years ago.
It's not the bitter way it all ended with the Wallabies that rankles, but Tuqiri is loving life on the end of the Wests Tigers backline.
Footy is fun and he is back where he belongs.
"I don't know if I did the right thing or not," Tuqiri says of his defection to the 15-man game. "I don't want to look back.
"Things have happened. I'm enjoying myself at the moment. What can I say; I had a good time playing rugby. I made a lot of good friends. We were one game shy of winning a World Cup. I got to a few finals in Super 14, but didn't get there.
"Hopefully things can change with the Wests Tigers."
Tuqiri lost something when he left the Broncos at the end of 2002\. He lost the opportunity to become one of the greatest rugby league wingers of all time. The way he has returned with the Tigers has shown how much the fans lost, too.
In his seven-year hiatus from rugby league he missed a potential 38 Tests and World Cup matches. If he had played in all of them, he would be our fourth-most-decorated international. If he had played in 30 of them, he would sit alongside an Immortal, Bob Fulton, on 35 Test matches.
A return to State of Origin with Queensland is a clear goal, something Tuqiri expressed to coach Tim Sheens before he even pulled on a Tigers jumper this season.
He has played six times for the Maroons and missed a possible 21 Origin games. The 30-year-old says playing for Queensland is the best time he's had in football.
"I'd love to play again. I'm not going to say I don't want to be there, I'm not up to it. I'm going to put my hand up," Tuqiri says. "It's one of the better times I've had in a representative jersey. You bleed for that jersey. You know the bloke beside you is doing the same thing."
Tuqiri has barely watched a game of rugby union in Australia since his million-dollar contract was torn up by the ARU chief executive John O'Neill in July. "I've just sort of kept up personal relationships more than anything else," he says.
But the numbers don't lie. Going into the game against North Queensland, he was averaging 166m per game. In the Super 14 last year, it was 54m.
His old mate and fellow dual international Wendell Sailor warned Tuqiri life would be different in the high-speed world of the NRL.
"He was saying it's a young man's game," Tuqiri says. "It's part of the reason he's probably moved on. He just said 'watch out for the speed, the guys from one to 17 are all big now. There's not an easy game as you might have had in rugby'.
"In Super 14, you can play against the easy team - you don't want to bag them, but say the Lions or the Cheetahs - whereas in rugby league you can't drop your game."
Tuqiri says he was given a massive boost when Sheens named him on the wing for the first game against Manly despite arriving back from Leicester less than a week before the season-opener.
He says for the most part there has been a warm welcome back to rugby league despite the mystery surrounding why he was sacked by the ARU.
"I haven't got too much hostility," Tuqiri says. "I got a bit down in Canberra. You know, (people saying) go back to rugby. The only way you can shut those people up is with a good performance."
The one subject that remains off limits is why the ARU sacked one of its highest-paid players mid-season. It's a subject he refuses to discuss, maintaining it is a private matter and will stay that way.
"It helps that I live in the now," Tuqiri says. "That probably helps.
"People are going to have their opinions anyway, what can you do about people saying things?
"You can't go to every person and say this is not right, that is not right, whatever. You can only control what you can control really.
"I don't tend to lose any sleep over people who are uninformed or have a differing opinion to what I have. There's no future in it, there's no use in trying to shut everyone up."
He believes leaving it in the past and blocking out what other people think is the healthiest option.
"It's the way I've been getting through it," Tuqiri says. "It's the way we've been getting through it as a family. I haven't known any different. That's just how it has been."
* By Jessica Halloran
* From: The Sunday Telegraph
* April 11, 2010 12:01AM
LOTE Tuqiri pauses and wonders if he did the right thing by switching to rugby union seven years ago.
It's not the bitter way it all ended with the Wallabies that rankles, but Tuqiri is loving life on the end of the Wests Tigers backline.
Footy is fun and he is back where he belongs.
"I don't know if I did the right thing or not," Tuqiri says of his defection to the 15-man game. "I don't want to look back.
"Things have happened. I'm enjoying myself at the moment. What can I say; I had a good time playing rugby. I made a lot of good friends. We were one game shy of winning a World Cup. I got to a few finals in Super 14, but didn't get there.
"Hopefully things can change with the Wests Tigers."
Tuqiri lost something when he left the Broncos at the end of 2002\. He lost the opportunity to become one of the greatest rugby league wingers of all time. The way he has returned with the Tigers has shown how much the fans lost, too.
In his seven-year hiatus from rugby league he missed a potential 38 Tests and World Cup matches. If he had played in all of them, he would be our fourth-most-decorated international. If he had played in 30 of them, he would sit alongside an Immortal, Bob Fulton, on 35 Test matches.
A return to State of Origin with Queensland is a clear goal, something Tuqiri expressed to coach Tim Sheens before he even pulled on a Tigers jumper this season.
He has played six times for the Maroons and missed a possible 21 Origin games. The 30-year-old says playing for Queensland is the best time he's had in football.
"I'd love to play again. I'm not going to say I don't want to be there, I'm not up to it. I'm going to put my hand up," Tuqiri says. "It's one of the better times I've had in a representative jersey. You bleed for that jersey. You know the bloke beside you is doing the same thing."
Tuqiri has barely watched a game of rugby union in Australia since his million-dollar contract was torn up by the ARU chief executive John O'Neill in July. "I've just sort of kept up personal relationships more than anything else," he says.
But the numbers don't lie. Going into the game against North Queensland, he was averaging 166m per game. In the Super 14 last year, it was 54m.
His old mate and fellow dual international Wendell Sailor warned Tuqiri life would be different in the high-speed world of the NRL.
"He was saying it's a young man's game," Tuqiri says. "It's part of the reason he's probably moved on. He just said 'watch out for the speed, the guys from one to 17 are all big now. There's not an easy game as you might have had in rugby'.
"In Super 14, you can play against the easy team - you don't want to bag them, but say the Lions or the Cheetahs - whereas in rugby league you can't drop your game."
Tuqiri says he was given a massive boost when Sheens named him on the wing for the first game against Manly despite arriving back from Leicester less than a week before the season-opener.
He says for the most part there has been a warm welcome back to rugby league despite the mystery surrounding why he was sacked by the ARU.
"I haven't got too much hostility," Tuqiri says. "I got a bit down in Canberra. You know, (people saying) go back to rugby. The only way you can shut those people up is with a good performance."
The one subject that remains off limits is why the ARU sacked one of its highest-paid players mid-season. It's a subject he refuses to discuss, maintaining it is a private matter and will stay that way.
"It helps that I live in the now," Tuqiri says. "That probably helps.
"People are going to have their opinions anyway, what can you do about people saying things?
"You can't go to every person and say this is not right, that is not right, whatever. You can only control what you can control really.
"I don't tend to lose any sleep over people who are uninformed or have a differing opinion to what I have. There's no future in it, there's no use in trying to shut everyone up."
He believes leaving it in the past and blocking out what other people think is the healthiest option.
"It's the way I've been getting through it," Tuqiri says. "It's the way we've been getting through it as a family. I haven't known any different. That's just how it has been."
