Jarryd Hayne was approached by the ARU when he arrived back in Australia after his first season in the NFL, but rugby's governing body was not tempted to speak to him again after he announced his desire to compete for Fiji in rugby sevens at the Olympic Games.

There were reports on Wednesday night Hayne had not been named in Fiji's initial squad for the London Sevens tournament this weekend, but coach Ben Ryan has until Friday to name his final squad, which is expected to change by then. It would appear unlikely Hayne will be left out of the last leg of the World Series event before teams turn their attention to preparing for the Rio Games.

Former Wallabies coaches Bob Dwyer and John Connolly believe the ARU did not miss an opportunity to go after Hayne this week, with former chief executive John O'Neill going so far as to say he "would not go near him" if he was still in charge.

When Hayne returned from San Francisco in January after making his NFL debut for the 49ers there were a number of rugby league clubs that approached his management to lure him back to the NRL following his successful stint with Parramatta. Fairfax Media understands the ARU was also keen to speak to Hayne and try and entice him to the 15-man code.

There were "inquiries" made with Hayne's management, but no formal talks were held to suggest the code-hopping star was considering a permanent move to rugby.

When news broke this week of Hayne's plan to play for Fiji at the Rio Olympics, the ARU was well aware that as soon as he took the field at the London Sevens for the Flying Fijians he would be ineligible to play for the Wallabies in the future. World Rugby eligibility rules state: "Once the player has represented the union of which he is a national, in an Olympic event, he shall thereafter be tied to that union for all forms of the game and in all events".

Some would argue the ARU might have missed the boat by not trying to speak to Hayne, but O'Neill said he thought the governing body made the right call.

"If I was running the ARU, I wouldn't go near him. I wouldn't go there," O'Neill said. "Acquiring Jarryd Hayne into rugby union would not be a problem. I think you can draw your own conclusions. All the other challenges that rugby has on its plate, particularly on a financial front, I just don't see Jarryd Hayne as a priority."

World Cup-winning coach Dwyer shares a similar view, saying there is no reason to try and lure a player to rugby just because he is a big name. He also tells the story of how he and rugby league coach of the century Jack Gibson once discussed the difference between union and league players.

"We can't sign every player who's walking around," Dwyer said. "Jack said: 'How do you think he [unnamed player] would go in rugby league?' I said: 'Jack, you have to understand we don't value a player's capacity on whether or not he can play rugby league or not'.

"It's not a missed opportunity. We've got a lot of good players playing rugby union. I'm not really that fussed about signing a player simply for the reason he would create some media interest or public interest."

Dwyer, however, warned Hayne against playing this weekend, saying: "The worst possible thing that could happen to Jarryd is that they play him and that rules him out [for the Wallabies]. That would be a giant mistake."

Connolly, who was in charge of the Wallabies in the mid 2000s, said he wouldn't lose any sleep if Hayne didn't ever run out for the Wallabies. He did, however, predict Hayne would take up a lucrative offer in either France or Japan after a possible Olympic Games cameo.

"I think you've got to earn an Australian jersey, whether it be sevens or anything else," Connolly said. "It would be great if he played rugby. He could never play for Australia but that wouldn't preclude him from one of the contracts that are set aside for overseas players in the ARU budget. A Super Rugby side could pick him up. It wouldn't be out of the realms of the ARU to top him up because of the interest it would bring to the game."