Rugby league Greg Inglis’s lucrative move to join the South Sydney Rabbitohs has reportedly hit the skids, with the NRL tipped to block the signing.
Sydney tabloid The Daily Telegraph claims NRL auditor Ian Schubert will prevent Inglis, who last month walked away from a deal with the Brisbane Broncos, joining the Rabbitohs on a three-year, $1.8m deal.
Perversely, the Rabbitohs may have their owner, Hollywood star Russell Crowe, to blame. A boast of Crowe on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show in the US set alarm bells ringing, after the Souths owner revealed Inglis had been signed for three years on a deal worth “roughly about $1.8 million”.
The $600,000-a-season figure Crowe alluded to did not marry up with Souths’ attempt to have Inglis squeezed under next year’s salary cap on a base salary of just $190,000. It was to be topped up by numerous third-party deals that will now be ruled as obligatory under the salary cap.
Inglis being lost to the NRL is now the most likely outcome, with his manager Allan Gainey having already fielded offers from French rugby union clubs.
