ARU court Tuqiri
June 13, 2002

Australian rugby league winger Lote Tuqiri is asking the Australian Rugby Union for $500,000 a season to switch codes.

ARU chief executive John O'Neill confirmed discussions had started with the Broncos flyer, but he said any offers would not be near what Tuqiri was asking.

The 22-year-old, who starred for Queensland in the second State of Origin, would be the third major rugby league player to switch codes following Wendell Sailor and Mat Rogers.

Both Sailor, a former Broncos teammate of Tuqiri, and Rogers will make their Wallaby debut against the New Zealand Maori in Perth on Saturday after switching in the off-season.

Tuqiri's manager Anthony Picone also negotiated Sailor's rugby package.

"There have been early discussions with his agent and there's no mistaking the fact we are keenly interested in Lote," O'Neill said.

"We would offer a good base salary, but then if he became a Wallaby he would be on considerable match payments of 9,000 to 10,000 dollars a match, which when you are playing 10 or 12 Test matches a year is another 100,000 to 200,000 a year."

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