After being told by the Sydney Roosters (Of all clubs!) to just go away and not come back, Willie Mason made the decision to head over to England and play for a Super League club.
It took many months and a lot of hassles over his visa, but eventually, a month into the 2011 Super League season, Mason finally showed up and took his place in the Hull KR lineup.
Now, I was always skeptical of Masons drive to play in northern England. Lets face it, going from living in Bondi to living in East Hull is going to be a bit of a culture shock for anyone.
Now it seems Mason may already be jack of living in the UK with news that he may head over to play French Rugby Union, as a center of all things!
Now, I can’t blame Mason, and I think its a move he really should make. He will earn far more money, play in an even lower quality competition than Super League, have less training to do and have less of an impact on him physically.
Its likely to be the last contract of his career, he might as well make it a big pay day.
What I don’t understand is, why French Rugby Union has looked at Mason at this point in his career and decided they want him.
Obviously being a Rugby League player, Mason is already ten steps ahead of most Rugby Union players. He is a huge human being and you can see why, meeting with him, any club would think about taking a chance on him.
He will have less of an impact on the culture of a French Rugby Union team simply because he doesn’t speak French! You could also imagine that the French don’t really care about what he has done in Australia, they know better of course….
That’s probably a good thing for Mason considering that the last three NRL clubs he played for all won the wooden spoon. He left the Bulldogs, Cowboys and Roosters on bad terms.
We saw with Mark Gasnier, the level of physical competition in French Rugby Union is terribly low. Gasnier still isn’t physically up the the level he was before he left for France. When he came back, he was shockingly smaller as far as muscle mass went.
Mason, at his age, will probably put on a bit of weigh, but the down side will be that he probably would find it difficult to ever get back into good enough shape to play Rugby League again.
Still, good luck to him. He can go and live in France for a few years, make a lot of money and play the equivalent of park football.
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