Wallabies winger Lote Tuqiri’s contract with the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) was terminated yesterday.
The ARU issued a brief statement saying that the 67-Test veteran’s employment had “been terminated effective today.” The ARU said it was treating the issue as a standard employment matter and would not make any further comment because the contract termination could become the subject of legal proceedings.
Tuqiri immediately hired a lawyer to contest the termination.
PHOTO: AFP
“All I can tell you is that Lote disputes that the ARU are entitled to terminate his contract and he has retained solicitor Mr Mark O’Brien and Mr Tony Marr, senior counsel, to immediately commence proceedings against the ARU,” Tuqiri’s agent Les Ross said.
The 29-year-old Tuqiri, one of Australia’s highest paid rugby players, had a contract through to 2012. Circumstances of his dismissal were not released.
Tuqiri has been the incumbent winger for Australia since switching from rugby league in 2003 and has been part of two World Cup campaigns. He played rugby league for Australia and Fiji.
Despite his reputation and salary, he slipped down the pecking order to No. 4 among the wingers in Australia after failing to win selection for any of Australia’s first four international matches of the season, including Test wins over Italy and France.
Wallabies coach Robbie Deans said Tuqiri didn’t get enough opportunities during the Super 14 season because of the gameplan of the New South Wales Waratahs, but had indicated until last week that the dual international was training well and was still part of the selection equation.
Local media reported that Tuqiri’s non selection in the first four matches of the year was not related to his contract termination.
The Waratahs declined comment, saying it was an issue for the ARU to deal with.
Tuqiri has previously been sanctioned for off-field matters, including a two-match ban and a A$20,000 (US$16,000) fine for failing to attend a team medical and registering an alcohol reading at a training session in July 2007.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier