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The renewed warfare between the rugby codes escalated yesterday with the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) shunning Parramatta rugby league star Eric Grothe and hitting back at league officials who say rugby can't produce its own players.

Grothe's planned defection to rugby union took a massive blow with the ARU saying they would not top up any contract the Parramatta winger signed with a Super 14 side.

In a statement released this afternoon, the ARU said they were not interested in Grothe, operations manager Pat Wilson saying reports of a deal worth $A280,000 ($NZ322,320) per season were totally incorrect.

"No offer, formal or informal has been discussed or tabled," Wilson said.

"If Eric wishes to try to secure a playing contract with one of the Super 14 franchises, his management knows the doors are wide open to them, however the ARU will not be topping up any Super 14 franchises offer."

Former Kangaroos winger Grothe and his manager Andrew Purcell said yesterday they had met with Wallabies coach John Connolly and NSW Waratahs officials, seemingly dealing a third blow to league in two weeks.

League star Timana Tahu announced on Tuesday he'd be crossing codes next year while South Sydney narrowly missed out on the signature of Wallaby Lote Tuqiri last week.

Earlier yesterday, Bulldogs coach Steve Folkes dismissed union as a threat to league and hit out at the code's need to poach National Rugby League stars.

"We continually produce players, it's probably a bit of an indictment on union, their development maybe, that they feel they need to come and buy internationals and buy first graders rather than develop them," Folkes said.

"You miss them for a time and some other kid jumps out of the ground. Greg Inglis comes in or something like that, and you replace them and they're sort of not lost after that.

"I don't know whether union's a major threat. . . (the number of league players switching codes is) not a very large percentage in the scheme of things, is it?"