Villasanti on his way out

[Berkeley_Eagle]

Villa on his way out
By Steve Mascord
March 5, 2006

FORMER international prop Richard Villasanti is set to accept the offer of an immediate release by New Zealand Warriors.

The 25-year-old's agent, Allan Gainey, confirmed he had been approached to help the Auckland club out of its salary cap strife by finding "Villa The Gorilla" a new club.

He said he had made contact with two Australian clubs and one in Britain.

Villasanti toured with the 2003 Australia Test squad but has increasingly played off the bench for the Warriors.

New Warriors coach Ivan Cleary is understood to have told Villasanti last week his opportunities in first grade would be limited.

"He's welcome to stay there. They're not forcing him out," Gainey said. "But he's off contract at the end of the year."

"It's well known he's looking to return to Australia. His wife, Renee, is from Sydney. They've just had a small child."

Gainey said playing out the season in Britain with "a strong club" was a possibility.

The former Canberra player qualifies for a Spanish passport, meaning he would not count in a Super League club's overseas quota.

Meanwhile, a number of Warriors players negotiated deferred payments on Friday to bring the club under the salary cap for this year. The arrangements were sent to cap auditor Ian Schubert for approval.

The Sunday Telegraph

 

[Matabele]

I don't think we'd be very interested in stealing him away.

 

[Guest]

We would need to put safes in the dressing rooms if we signed him.

 

[ants]

I don't know how much truth there is to this, but, there is a rumour circuling that Clinton Toopi may be leaving the warriors also. Could anyone see him in Maroon and White??

 

[cethus]

who yhe hell cares,des dosnt want him,and hed be no real asset

 

[Ryan]

elav..my spelling is poor....yours is appaulling...HeHe..

ON the field, Villisanti is a fantastic player with excellent drive, leadership & skill. For that reason I'd take him on.

Alternatively, Toopi would be good if we aren't putting all our eggs in the Lyon basket.

 

[cethus]

Yes,i tend to agree,english not so good after a few v.bs,but alas,i still disgr..disagra...disagree with you on that one.But toopi could fill a void if we were short on centres...that could be a typo too.

 

[Nutzcraw]

It is ironic that this villasanti has been brought up ... because i was driving a couple of mates around over the weekend and we ot talking about footy.. and i said "remember when villasanti was pretty good" making the Australian Team and he was thrown around as a good chance at Origin too..

I'm not sure what has happened but he's not half the player now then he was back when all this was going on... I think he's figured out he's lost his "spark" and is going to head off to england for some superannuation!!