https://www.rugbyheaven.smh.com.au/...eturn-to-league/2006/09/12/1157826943391.html
Wallabies player Mat Rogers is set to return to rugby league with the NRL's new Gold Coast Titans franchise.
Rogers, 30, one of three big-name league players recruited by the Australian Rugby Union before the 2003 World Cup, told senior union officials of his plans during a meeting late yesterday at the InterContinental hotel in Sydney.
He is then believed to have advised his Australia and NSW teammates at last night's John Eales Medal presentation, won by Chris Latham, where he refused to comment to the Herald.
The move will be confirmed today by the Titans managing director, Michael Searle, and coach, John Cartwright, at a news conference at the Conrad Jupiters Casino on the Gold Coast.
It is understood that Rogers intends to see out the remaining year of his ARU contract and will make the switch after the Rugby World Cup in France next September and October.
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He would also play the 2007 Super 14s season for the NSW Waratahs, but may be available for the Titans afterwards if not chosen in the Wallabies squad for the World Cup.
Otherwise, he will join the NRL newcomers the following season at the age of 32.
Rogers is believed to have tired of the travelling involved in an international rugby career and was keen to return to the area he grew up in.
The birth of his third child, Max Danger, in June to the model Chloe Maxwell helped him come to the decision.
A winger during his league career with Cronulla, Queensland and Australia, Rogers is likely to play either five-eighth or full-back when he returns.
Lote Tuqiri and Wendell Sailor, the two other major league stars to switch codes, have also expressed a desire to return to the NRL. Sailor, who is serving a two-year ban for cocaine use, last weekend declared he wanted to join St George Illawarra if he succeeded in having the penalty reduced at an upcoming appeals hearing.
Tuqiri has often stated that he would like to return to league after next year's World Cup.
The Sharks' point-scoring whiz Rogers signed with the ARU in 2002 in a five-year deal worth at least $350,000 a season and $10,000 a match in Wallaby payments. At the time he was on $320,000 a season with the Sharks and had played State of Origin for Queensland and for Australia. He grew up on the Gold Coast and represented Queensland in rugby as a schoolboy in 1993.
Rogers has 41 Wallabies Test caps and has played full-back, centre and at flyhalf.
His father Steve, 51, an Australian rugby league representative, was found dead in January on the stairs of the block of flats where he lived in Cronulla with his second wife, Ingrid.
There were no suspicious circumstances but he had been suffering from depression. Rogers's mother Carol died in 2001, after a battle with cancer, which devastated him and his siblings Don and Melanie. Rogers has two children, Jack and Skyla, with his first wife, Michelle
Wallabies player Mat Rogers is set to return to rugby league with the NRL's new Gold Coast Titans franchise.
Rogers, 30, one of three big-name league players recruited by the Australian Rugby Union before the 2003 World Cup, told senior union officials of his plans during a meeting late yesterday at the InterContinental hotel in Sydney.
He is then believed to have advised his Australia and NSW teammates at last night's John Eales Medal presentation, won by Chris Latham, where he refused to comment to the Herald.
The move will be confirmed today by the Titans managing director, Michael Searle, and coach, John Cartwright, at a news conference at the Conrad Jupiters Casino on the Gold Coast.
It is understood that Rogers intends to see out the remaining year of his ARU contract and will make the switch after the Rugby World Cup in France next September and October.
advertisement - story continues below
He would also play the 2007 Super 14s season for the NSW Waratahs, but may be available for the Titans afterwards if not chosen in the Wallabies squad for the World Cup.
Otherwise, he will join the NRL newcomers the following season at the age of 32.
Rogers is believed to have tired of the travelling involved in an international rugby career and was keen to return to the area he grew up in.
The birth of his third child, Max Danger, in June to the model Chloe Maxwell helped him come to the decision.
A winger during his league career with Cronulla, Queensland and Australia, Rogers is likely to play either five-eighth or full-back when he returns.
Lote Tuqiri and Wendell Sailor, the two other major league stars to switch codes, have also expressed a desire to return to the NRL. Sailor, who is serving a two-year ban for cocaine use, last weekend declared he wanted to join St George Illawarra if he succeeded in having the penalty reduced at an upcoming appeals hearing.
Tuqiri has often stated that he would like to return to league after next year's World Cup.
The Sharks' point-scoring whiz Rogers signed with the ARU in 2002 in a five-year deal worth at least $350,000 a season and $10,000 a match in Wallaby payments. At the time he was on $320,000 a season with the Sharks and had played State of Origin for Queensland and for Australia. He grew up on the Gold Coast and represented Queensland in rugby as a schoolboy in 1993.
Rogers has 41 Wallabies Test caps and has played full-back, centre and at flyhalf.
His father Steve, 51, an Australian rugby league representative, was found dead in January on the stairs of the block of flats where he lived in Cronulla with his second wife, Ingrid.
There were no suspicious circumstances but he had been suffering from depression. Rogers's mother Carol died in 2001, after a battle with cancer, which devastated him and his siblings Don and Melanie. Rogers has two children, Jack and Skyla, with his first wife, Michelle
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