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Tuqiri's secret safe

Sydney - The public is no closer to learning the reasons for Lote Tuqiri's sacking by the Australian Rugby Union (ARU), with newly released court documents revealing no details.

The former Wallabies and NSW Waratahs winger had his $1 million a year contract torn up by the ARU on July 1, but the circumstances leading to his sacking were not made public.

The ARU said only that Tuqiri had breached the player code of conduct, but not the law.A NSW Supreme Court judge on Friday ruled the full statement of claim in Tuqiri's breach of contract action should be on the public record, with the exception of one contentious paragraph that was censored.

Lawyers for both parties successfully applied for a stay of proceedings to prevent the release of court documents until they could appeal the decision.

However, both parties on Monday agreed to withdraw their applications seeking leave to appeal.Consequently, the full statement of claim on behalf of Lote Tuqiri and LT Promotions was revealed, with the exception of paragraph E.

The claim says Tuqiri's employment with the ARU and the NSW Rugby Union (NSWRU) was fixed for five years from January 2008 to December 2012.

‘‘It is the plaintiff's contention that the terminations were contrary to the provisions of the player contract and amounted to a repudiation of that contract which the plaintiffs have accepted,'' a statement of claim released on Monday said.

‘‘The plaintiffs claim damages for loss of bargain and (damages) flowing from the wrongful termination."

The circumstances leading to the termination were not outlined.

The parties are due to appear in the NSW Supreme Court on August 11.
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