Izack Rodda could be open to U-turn on decision to quit Reds

There is a very real possibility that Wallabies second-rower Izack Rodda is seeking to undo his decision to move overseas.

There is speculation that Queensland and Wallabies second-rower Izack Rodda is reconsidering his decision to quit Australian rugby. Picture: Getty Images

All he would say was “I’ve got no comment at this stage” but Australian rugby was abuzz on Thursday with the possibility that Wallabies and Queensland second-rower Izack Rodda was seeking to undo his decision to move overseas.

The game was astounded a fortnight ago when it emerged that Rodda, along with two other high-profile members of the Reds squad, Isaac Lucas and Harry Hockings, had decided to put themselves at odds with 189 of their professional rugby peers by refusing to sign the deal negotiated by RUPA and Rugby Australia to savagely cut their pay.

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Events moved quickly from there. The Reds stood them down, the three players repudiated their contracts and, in the end, Rugby Australia cut them adrift, with interim CEO Rob Clarke indicating he would not be rewarding maverick behaviour by allowing them to transfer to another Australian franchise.

It is understood that Lucas and Hockings have signed letters of intent with Japanese clubs but Rodda, the only capped Wallaby among the three with 25 Tests, was always considered the player most likely to have second thoughts about severing his ties with Australia.

The media speculated that Reds coach Brad Thorn’s decision to award the Queensland captaincy not to Rodda but to the then 21-year-old Liam Wright was at the heart of the Test lock’s disenchantment. But in an interview with Triple M earlier this week, Thorn denied there was any semblance of a rift between them and indeed said Rodda had come to his home last Saturday. “I’ve never had a problem with Izack and we’ve never had an argument,” Thorn said. “He lost his father (last year). I lost my Dad when I was 19. We’ve had a lot of personal chats. With Izack, he is a guy you care about a lot.”

Rodda received the news of his father’s death, by suicide, when he was in Dunedin last February for the match against the Highlanders and begged Thorn to be allowed to play.

“Dad always wanted me to play footy because he loved watching me, so I thought there would be no better way of honouring him,” Rodda told The Australian during last year’s World Cup campaign in Japan.

If there is one single factor in Rodda’s rumoured change of heart, it might well have been that interview Thorn did with Triple M. Even though Rugby Australia had just declared Rodda a free agent and effectively cut him loose, it would have hit home to Rodda that Thorn still cared about him as a person.

Neither incoming Wallabies coach Dave Rennie nor Rugby Australia’s director of rugby, Scott Johnson, have given up on attempting to persuade Rodda to change his mind, so there would presumably be only a few obstacles to overcome should he decide to officially approach the QRU and RA.

Certainly if he was to have the courage to come out and admit he had made a mistake and contritely attempted to rejoin the Australian rugby family, he would in an instant rise from pariah to favourite son.

The game has taken a savage battering both from within and without lately, with reports that a former Wallaby in a senior rugby position has been death-riding it in talks with players’ agents, but if Rodda was to execute a U-turn, it would send a powerful message that Australian rugby has a future.

But it is a fine balance at present and ironically while one Wallabies second-rower is reportedly contemplating a return, another is planning to head to France. It is understood that while Matt Philip will play out this year in Australia with Melbourne Rebels and quite possibly the Wallabies, hoping to add to his tally of three Tests, the 26-year-old is heading to France next year to play for Pau.

Philip was done no favours in the past by the Australian selectors, and he looked like surging into Test team contention this season, irrespective of whether Rodda and Hockings carry through with their plans to head overseas. But there is a Test locking position wide open.