Barnes defers decision on joining Rebels
Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:46
Berrick Barnes will wait until a few weeks after he returns from the Waratahs' tour to South Africa before he takes a decision on his future.
The Waratahs will be in South Africa for two weeks to play the Stormers in Cape Town and the Bulls in Pretoria.
Barnes and fellow Wallaby star, prop Benn Robinson, are believed to be be prime targets for the Melbourne Rebels ahead of their baptism as the 15th Super Rugby franchise.
Robinson is expected to stay with the Waratahs but Barnes's future is less clear.
Barnes, who moved from league to union in 2006, left the Reds at the end of last year to transfer to the Waratahs, and it would come as no surprise if Rod Macqueen were to make him a very substantial offer to join the new Rebels.
Barnes would be a key acquisition for the new franchise and would entice other players to join him.
"I'll make a decision on all that sort of stuff when I get back from South Africa," Barnes told The Australian.
"A couple of weeks back at home and I'll sort it all out. I haven't spoken to any of them [Rebels officials] personally. There's obviously a lot of talk flying around. I'll steer clear of all that sort of stuff.
"All I'm saying is that I'm happy with where I'm at. The way things are going I'm pretty happy here."
Barnes said he would have been happy with his decision to move to Sydney irrespective of the result of Saturday's game against the Reds, where the Waratahs scored a last-second 30-28 win following a converted try by Wycliff Palu.
He received a hostile reception from the Brisbane spectators, who booed him every time he touched the ball.
"I got jeered pretty heavily out there, mate," Barnes said.
His former Reds teammates also gave him a hard time. "There was a bit of niggle out there," he told The Australian.
Barnes, who kicked four penalty goals and a drop-goal, was lavish in his praise of his new Waratahs teammates.
"These guys have been playing together for a long while," he said. "I've only just come into it. It's a tight group of blokes. They have won a lot of games together and a lot of close ones. The guys knew how to get over the line and they were always calm."
Meanwhile, the Rebels CEO Brian Waldron will plead for the new Super rugby franchise's player signing deadline to be brought forward when he meets Australian Rugby Union (ARU) boss John O'Neill on Wednesday.
Waldron, the former Melbourne Storm CEO who started with the Rebels earlier this month, says the organisation is still taking a "conciliatory" approach to negotiations with the ARU over the deadline despite reports they were considering legal action.
However, he says the owners of the Rebels, who will be the only privately-funded Australian Super rugby franchise, have a right to "protect their interests".
Upon handing over the Super 15 licence to the Rebels in early January, the ARU imposed a May 31 deadline before the new franchise could sign Australian-based players in a bid to avoid a repeat of the pillaging of other Australian sides when the Western Force joined the competition in 2006.
The deadline is making recruitment difficult for the newcomers, who are still to land their first acquisition.
Eager to avoid a "stoush" ahead of his first meeting with O'Neill, Waldron played down the possibility of legal action.
"Being new into the chair from my point of view I'll be taking a very conciliatory approach to the ARU," Waldron told Australian Associated Press (AAP).
"There are certainly some issues that we have but at the end of the day we want to work with the ARU to make sure that we're highly competitive.
"We don't want to be doing anything but working through our concerns with the ARU.
"We don't see any need in having a public stoush about it."
Waldron says he hopes to convince the ARU that it will be in the code's best interests if the Rebels are as competitive as possible, hence the need for a new transfer deadline.
"To be successful, as the Storm and the Melbourne Victory have demonstrated, you need to be highly competitive," he told AAP.
"So, I'd anticipate the ARU will assist us, on a fair basis and give us every opportunity to be competitive like the other provinces."
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