Rico's New Gear - Reverse

We here at the Dropkicks have been defending Rico Gear for some time. We still rail against his omission from the All Blacks World Cup Squad. However, Rico’s latest move may have gone too far.

Gear has negotiated himself out of the province that allowed him to play for the Crusaders in the Super 12, Tasman. When Canterbury signed Kevin Senio from Bay of Plenty in 2005 they used up their quota of All Black transfers, so Gear moved to the Tasman Union (then Nelson Bays).

But since joining Tasman, Gear played only four matches for Nelson Bays in 2005 and three for Tasman last year. And now Tasman have “loaned” him to Canterbury for the rest of the Air New Zealand Cup.

Gear’s excuse for wanting to play for Canterbury is "first and foremost I wanted to stay with my young family; it just makes life a lot easier. We bought a home in Christchurch which is just 150m away from the Canterbury training ground. I was just keen to be near my home" Gear said.

This naturally begs the question: why didn’t you buy a house closer to your home ground rather than a hefty commute away? The answer is of course that Gear never had any intention to play for the province that was investing time, money coaching experience and salary cap-space in him.

Moreover at the end of this year Gear is heading to England to play for Worcester. How much closer is England to his house in Christchurch?

And what does Tasman get in return? A dirty great big kick in the bollocks that’s what! Tasman will receive nothing in return for, what is in every other professional sport, called a “trade”. Trade implies both parties get something, in this case Canterbury get an All Black quality player with the versatility to play wing and centre-cover, while Tasman got the aforementioned kick in the dolallies and a bit of salary cap space (that they will spend on…?).

Quite frankly this is the most selfish thing I have seen a player do in recent years. Gear packed a sad when he wanted to leave North Harbour, he grumbled for two seasons in Tasman/Nelson Bays and now he has held his breath and stamped his feet to worm his way out of a contract (a freaking contract!) to play for the team he likes best.

Rico you have just nominated yourself for Dick of the Week.