Gary Flowers Quotes (14 Quotes)

If he decides he wants a new challenge in an international game with the potential to play his way into a Rugby World Cup, that's great.

Because of the significance of the issue, both the NSWRU and ARU agree further action is warranted. After the problems in South Africa last year, we have put a lot of effort into redefining the Wallabies' disciplinary protocol. This latest incident has to be viewed as a serious matter, and automatically must go to a code-of-conduct tribunal conducted by an independent chairperson.

Over the past two months we have identified where we need to go. I am very pleased that John Connolly will head the coaching team to take us there. We certainly have the players, now we have a head coach with the right skills to get the Wallabies back in a winning vein.

Australia would be keen for the top-flight England team to be here. We certainly won't be resting ours.

We have to make a final decision later in the week. It is pretty clear we want to see a genuine desire from Mark to play rugby union and a preparedness to back himself.

It is a contract based on incentive, and proving himself in rugby. We cannot comment on the actual numbers, but the 750,000 figure which has been bandied around is just nowhere near the mark. Third-party offers have also not been involved in any of the discussions, and is not part of any offer which has been made.

What this review is telling us is that we are not simply one win away from getting things right. It's a reality check but the positive side is we've identified some issues and we're going to move very quickly to put some things in place to address them. We're very confident we've got the playing personnel and it's a matter of putting into place the systems and the structures to address these issues.

There was concern at the AGM (on Thursday) about player contracting.

All professional players have responsibilities ... It's very critical that players live up to the standards that are expected and it is disappointing.

The issue of third-party agreements for individual players is a complex issue and something we will be looking at very closely.

SANZAR has worked hard to push rugby into new and existing markets and the ABC Asia-Pacific deal is a huge step into more than 40 countries with a potential viewing audience of 10 million households.

Australian rugby and our supporters expect their players to represent themselves, their team and their country in a manner befitting an international player. It is unfortunate that we have had to resort to such a measure, but in this instance we were left with no choice.

Elton has received ongoing advice from specialists in Melbourne and Brisbane in recent times, and the most important thing is that he has not suffered any long-term or permanent injury.

As much as you can get a read on someone over a coffee, he came across as an impressive person who is genuinely interested in the challenge of playing rugby against the best teams in the world on an international stage.