Correct me if I'm wrong but Bateman isn't even in Australia yet - he will be joining up with Canberra later in the year so you can't use this as basis to your argument. George and Tom Burgess aside they have all made a name for themselves over here before the NRL takes a chance on them. There has been a big influx of English forwards joining the NRL in the last few years which shows just how good the super league forward talent is. I don't get why we have to pay marquee money for somebody from the NRL when we have the likes of Hill / O'loughlin / Walmsley / McMeeken / Luke Thompson / Currie / Scott Taylor / Milner / Greenwood / Roby / Clark already here. Not all of these are gettable but the talent is here.

I think you seem to be missing the point by mentioning our starting pack. I'd argue that George Burgess isn't guaranteed starting pack - he's only recently come back into the fold due to injuries and didn't make the last world cup due to poor form. All of the above mentioned players are in and around the team when fit so the squad has a lot of super league forwards in it.

I also know Rhys Evans is a 27yr old 2nd division Centre ditched from SL
with zero interest in him & no record whatsoever of being a capeble SL back up Wing or FB.

Zero interest until a coach who has coached him before has decided to to take a punt for 12 months He'll fill in on the wing and maybe centre if he's crap then he won't get picked.

WE shouln't have lost Ben Markland. Outstanding in last year's Academy games.

So you would play a winger not 18 until March who is only 5ft 6 and 12 and a it bit stones against seasoned SL players?

We' ve a new V3 version of this thread subject now available at the very top of this site in the £sticky" section.

I'm going to leave this thread unlocked until the end of Monday night (6.1.20) then I'm locking it up and moving this over to the new V3 version.

Thank you to all who have contributed to this 729 page mega thread.