A former Australian rugby league player, who is English Qualifying through his father was signed for Worcester Warriors on a 2 year deal following his time at Top 14 club Toulon.
Statements at the time of announcing new signings are always great for retrospective reading. For instance: "He comes to us with an ambition to play rugby union for England, through his English parents, and I'm sure it won't be long before Martin Johnson will start looking at him." Mike Ruddock, Warriors.co.uk Well, that was over 3 years ago and not only did he never arrive on these shores, he then went on record saying he would love to play for the Wallabies!
Following our relegation and the subsequent departure of Ruddock the club announced 29th June 2010 it was sorry to say that Luke Rooney would no longer be joining the club from Toulon and instead he would return to Australia. The interesting part of the statement being "As part of the agreement, Warriors have agreed that they will continue to have an option with Luke should he make a return to Northern Hemisphere rugby in the future" Warriors.co.uk
Well the future is here and he has returned to Toulon following a spells with Melbourne Rebels and Hawkes Bay.
Are we taking up our option in him? If you believe the rumours floating around Sixways this weekend, then yes we are.
Should we take up our option in him? No, I don't think so. In fact, you might say we were lucky in not following through with his contract, as his playing stats are not great!
2010/11 Season
Rebels - Played 10 (5 from the bench) No points scored
Hawkes Bay (NZ) - Played 2. No points scored
2011/12 Season
Toulon - Played 22 (19 from the bench) 30 points scored
2012/13 Season
Toulon - Played 2 (1 from the bench) No points scored
Rooney is 30 years old and in the past 3 seasons he has played the equivalent of 25 full games of rugby. He has had plenty of Chris Pennell style bad luck with injury and has not made the ompression on rugby union that we were lead to expect.
I am sure he has a wealth of experience from both rugby league and union, yes he has been at some top clubs, but he has not made the break through, he has not been playing week in and week out, he has not been scoring tries for fun and he certainly has not got close to having either an England or Australian international call up.
Ben Howard and Paul Warwick supporting Chris Pennell is a much better option for the club, lets save our money for a young, current international in a position that needs improving.
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