Gary Flowers Rugby Quotations

We have to make a final decision later in the week. It is pretty clear we want to see a genuine desire from Mark to play rugby union and a preparedness to back himself.

SANZAR has worked hard to push rugby into new and existing markets and the ABC Asia-Pacific deal is a huge step into more than 40 countries with a potential viewing audience of 10 million households.

Australian rugby and our supporters expect their players to represent themselves, their team and their country in a manner befitting an international player. It is unfortunate that we have had to resort to such a measure, but in this instance we were left with no choice.

As much as you can get a read on someone over a coffee, he came across as an impressive person who is genuinely interested in the challenge of playing rugby against the best teams in the world on an international stage.

If he decides he wants a new challenge in an international game with the potential to play his way into a Rugby World Cup, that's great.