It's cute that you're obsessed with one of the most successful Academy systems in world rugby (if you base it on honours won by its graduates), and thank you for your concern.

If I were you though, I'd be more worried about why Wigan's Academy system is basically acting as a feeder team for the NRL rather than helping its first team to win trophies.

I know we fielded 11 from ours on Friday.

We also fielded three British lads outwith our Academy that are/were internationals (Peacock. Hardaker and Briscoe. We also rested two Academy lads htat have played international rugby (Watkins and McGuire) and had one other Academy produced international out injured (JJB)

What's your point?

Say na more

How many overseas players (in total) will be playing at Wembley on Saturday. I'm guessing that it'll be the most in a long time. Hull and HKR are merging their academies and are still bringing in more overseas players.

That's my point

They'll be 5 or 6 overseas players for Leeds on Saturday. Which is less than the 7 Wigan fielded in the 2011 Final.

For Leeds in the final it's likely you'll see 5 non-english: Moon, Kylie, Delaney, Garbutt and either Achurch or Keinhorst. When we last played your lot in the final in 2011 you fielded 7: Carmont, Richards, Finch, Leuluai, Lima, Hansen and Hoffman so it's a bit rich for a Wigan fan to make that claim.

In fact, in terms of foreigners Leeds' most likely 17 throughout this season has featured only Moon from the backs and only Aiton, Delaney and Kylie in the forwards, with most of everybody else being English (Cuthbertson has yet to declare, and has a completely legitimate and uncontroversial claim to represent England) and the majority are academy trained.

Watkins, Hall, McGuire, Sinfield, Burrow, Ward, Sutcliffe, Singleton, Ablett and JJB have all been first choice players this season - that's 10 out of 17 that have only ever played for us, and that's to ignore Handley. But you think Leeds are going to bring about the demise of the English game by bringing in a world class hooker? Have a word. Of all the clubs to have a pop at it seems strange that you'd pick Leeds.

That's not to even mention the likes of Baldwinson,Mulhern,Golding and Robbie Ward who will all be pushing for game time next year alongside Handley. Plus us having a possible 4 out of 5 of England's 3/4 line this autumn.

Yes, very worrying.

Not Sure.

How many will Wigan be playing?

Achurch also qualifies for England IIRC.

Setting aside Rogues' daft willy-waving, if we take GH's comments at face value then we've got cap space for next year but haven't got enough to commit to £175k for Farah, so if he *was* to come it would mean shifting another player out. The most likely option for this would be Achurch who is apparently on decent whack, so there would be no change in our net number of Aussie born/NRL raised players.

Apparently we offered him a few weeks ago but he declined, not going to happen imo

Not sure about that, but I have heard from a very reliable source that a deal is almost agreed with Warrington for Clark. The player himself is absolutely desperate to come.

I know that last year they spoke with Clark and agreed terms then when Warrington were trying to get out of the deal, so who know it could fail again. But me personally, I am favouring this rumour as going to happen at the moment.

I could be totally wrong about Clark but what does he offer from DH? Don't get me wrong, he's got frightening pace when he makes a brake but how good is his distribution and creating space for the runners?

I'm probably judging him to much on his form this year in a below par Warrington team, but other than the odd time he makes a break, the rest of his games isn't all that. As I said, I could be wrong, I haven't seen all that much of him. Am I?

He is struggling at Warrington and clearly his heart not in it (see Lee crooks at Leeds)
He has potencial to be truly world class, or big fish small pond which seems to happen to a lot of Ex Cas players. However I hope this is true think he will fit in well at Leeds.

The thing people forget about Clark is that he's only 22. At that age Roby was spelling Cunningham and was nowhere near the 80-minute hooker he is now. Clark has loads of room to develop and he's going to be a star for the next decade whoever he plays for. It would be ideal if that's for Leeds.

If wire let us have Clarke so they could sign Farah I think we'd be laughing (especially long term)

A "big name" like Farah would seem more of a wire signing than a Leeds one.

Warrington are in a tough position IF the rumours of his unhappiness are accurate. Do you really want to keep someone who doesn't want to be there, not really. But you don't want to see him excel at a rival. I imagine they'd love an NRL club to come sniffing but after a disappointing season it probably has lowered his stock.

Clark needs a pack on the front foot to thrive, like most dummy halves.

Warrington haven't had one this year - Westwood is in decline, Hill looks shattered, Asotasi and Sims haven't delivered the impact they were signed to do. Add in that I don't think Clark feels that valued (would you, if you knew they had tried to pull out of the deal?) and I honestly think a move would be best for his career.

If he stays at Warrington I can only see him going backwards, which would be a shame. Imagine him running off Garbutt's won collisions, or Cuthbertson's offloads though.

If, and its a big if, we were to sign clark what would that mean for burrow? They would be very similar in style. Maybe more of a push for Robbie Ward?

I don't think they're similar in style. Clark defends the middle and regularly hit 40+ tackles a game for Cas. He's going to be more a Roby than a Burrow. Still room for Rob to do what he does as impact sub.

Fair shout on the defensive side, I meant more on attack. They both look to break using pace which is their key attribute with distribution and creativity being secondary ( burrow crabbing is not being creative).

Much as Clark is good to watch when he is in the mood I'm not convinced he can fill aitons shoes - words I never thought I'd say when he first came.

So you could well be wrong about Clark as well given your past record?

I'm almost always wrong which is why I'm not a professional coach. It's simply an observation based on infrequently watching Clark. Much like all on here.

Dont get me wrong, I'm not a Clark hater I'm just not convinced he's the best fit. That said, his pace and eye for the gap behind our pack would be devastating. His average distribution would mean the halves having to work a bit harder though. People dont give aiton enough praise for how many breaks his distribution makes possible.

I think it's fair to say Aiton's form this year surprised a lot of people