Wallaby free-spirit Rogers still winded from Lewsey hit

COFFS HARBOUR, Australia, Nov 18 (AFP) - Wallaby fullback Mat Rogers has a score to settle with England counterpart Josh Lewsey when the two players go head-to-head in Saturday's World Cup final.

Lewsey produced one of the tackles of the season when he scythed down rugby league convert Rogers with a bone-crunching hit during England's 25-14 victory in June.

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It left Rogers badly winded -- and put an end to the 27-year-old's fondness for surfing.

"It ruined my surfing career," Rogers said when asked about the tackle. "I can't lie on a surf board properly now because my rib sticks out.

"It was an old injury but he flared it up. Now when all the boys go surfing I have to go swimming because I can't lie on my board.

"I've copped a few good ones in my time but that was right up there. My wife was really upset about it after the game, she said 'That was dirty'.

"I had to tell her it wasn't dirty it was just a great hit. Good on him, it really rattled me."

The surfing world's loss has been Australian rugby's gain.

After a difficult transition from rugby league - where he was a star member of the Kangaroos 2000 World Cup winning side -- Rogers is finally starting to win the sceptics over.

A solid display in Australia's 22-10 semi-final win over the All Blacks last week has left him 80 minutes away from becoming the first man to win World Cup winners medals in both rugby codes.

Free-spirited on the pitch, Rogers is just as engaging off it, with a wry sense of humour. "A rugby league player," was his reply when asked what he would have been if not a rugby union player.

And if not a rugby league player? "Probably a stop-go man on a walk crossing."

By his own admission, Rogers has not had the best of World Cups. His presence in the Wallaby line-up has been called into question after several schoolboy handling errors.

"People can criticise all they want," Rogers said. "But I know I've got the respect of the other 29 members of the squad so none of that really

matters.       "You do cop a bit of flak in the press, and to be honest I

haven't played that well in this World Cup."

Rogers, renowned as one of the best ball handlers during his rugby league days, is at a loss to explain his attack of the dropsies which prompted Wallaby team-mates to tape cardboard handles on to his water bottle as a joke.

"People say to me 'What are you thinking about when you drop the ball?'. And I say 'Well I can tell you what I'm not thinking about -- and that's dropping the ball.'"," Rogers said.

"I don't think about it. The day I start thinking 'Ooh, I'm going to drop the ball' is the day I quit playing because I know I don't have a problem with my hands."

Rogers, the son of Australian rugby league legend Steve Rogers, admits he experienced pangs of nostalgia for the 13-man code after his switch to union in November 2001.

"There was one time last year when I wondered if I'd done the right thing," he recalled.

"I was finding it hard to remember all the different moves in union, probably because I hadn't used my brain for years. I went to watch my old club Cronulla and thought 'Gee I'd like to be out there with them.'

"But now I know I made the right decision. Six months before I signed a deal to play union a friend said 'Would you ever go and play rugby union?'.

"I said 'Never in my life'. And here I am getting ready to play in a World Cup final."

rcw/ak

RugbyU-WC2003-AUS-ENG-Rogers

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This article is Copyright 2003 by Agence France-Presse.

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