Warriors chief executive Cameron George has labelled New Zealand Rugby 'disrespectful' after one of the club's contracted players, Etene Nanai-Seturo, was named in the All Blacks Sevens squad for the Sydney Sevens.
Nanai-Seturo made his international Sevens debut over the weekend in Australia, despite being contracted to the Warriors until the end of 2019.
The 18-year-old handed in a letter of 'resignation' to the Warriors last year, but George confirmed that he has not officially been released and is still contracted to the club.
Both the Warriors and NZR have been discussing the terms of his deal and, despite not reaching an agreement, Nanai-Seturo was selected for the Sevens team and featured in five games over the weekend.
Speaking to Andrew Gourdie and Jim Kayes on RadioLIVE's Sunday Sport, George slammed the NZR for selecting a player who is currently contracted to a different code.
"I was very disappointed last week to read publicly that he was named in the World Sevens team to represent New Zealand in Sydney," George told RadioLIVE.
"There has to be respect amongst codes and I believe we are not being shown that right now and I'll do what I feel is right for the Warriors to protect us and in principle.
"There are a number of parties involved in this but at the end of the day, New Zealand Rugby understood the situation of this gentleman and to simply go name him in that squad I believe that was disrespectful.
"He is employed by us so to simply walk out on us and go play a different code it would have been dealt with much easier and in a proper way.
George is hopeful of getting the situation sorted out quickly as possible and admitted lawyers are getting involved in the discussion which may end up in court.
"This may go down the path of ending up in court to ascertain who's right and who's wrong. That advice is still coming to use and that's all I can say with the legal side of things.
"The desired outcome would be to get it sorted out ASAP so we can draw a line in the sand and move on and we are having those talks now.
"We believe we are in the right, we have done everything properly, and professionally throughout Ente's career at the Warriors and I was disappointed in the way NZR came out and announced his position in the Sevens team when they knew this dispute was on-going."
The All Blacks Sevens finished fifth in Sydney and now their attention shifts to this weekend's Hamilton Sevens.
New Zealand is yet to name their squad so it is unclear if Nanai-Seturo will feature.
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