Nailed on according to my sources.

Quote ="Old Feller"Bath coach Meehan hopeful it says here: news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 396308.stm'" I wonder if they showed him their turd hole of a ground. Bath W*****rs told us not to bother bringing our kids to the minis and juniors fixtures back in December (at the last minute as well - many of us were already on the way) because the Rec was "frozen". Although some people from our club were shopping in Bath that morning and saw all their kids training as normal. I guess we weren't easy enough for them to beat, or posh enough to walk on their grass.

Quote ="Old Feller"Bath coach Meehan hopeful it says here: news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 396308.stm'" I wonder if they showed him their turd hole of a ground. Bath W*****rs told us not to bother bringing our kids to the minis and juniors fixtures back in December (at the last minute as well - many of us were already on the way) because the Rec was "frozen". Although some people from our club were shopping in Bath that morning and saw all their kids training as normal. I guess we weren't easy enough for them to beat, or posh enough to walk on their grass.

We're talking about Eastmond here.

Y'know... Eastmond that plays for Saints.

Y'know... Saints that play at Knowlsey Road.

PMSL.

It's a good point, well made.

The so called Bath minis and juniors have nothing to do with the professional outfit called Bath Rugby nowadays. The land that Bath minis play on (the Rec) is run by a charity, who dictate when conditions are fit for play.

He can hear the money jingling into his bank as we speak,,, yes he looks like robinson but has no where near the same talent as JR, personally i think he will fail at Union and would be a huge loss to league if he does go but will be back soon enough i think... some like it some dont

Apart from John Bentley there are serveral notable England RU internationals that converted to RL. - Bev Risman, (Leigh, Leeds) Mike Coulman (Salford), Keith Fielding (Salford). Barrie John Mather (Wigan & England Schools RU) If you go back futher you have Ray French (St Helens), and the great Leeds legend Jim Brough and Thomas Holiday (Oldham)

Wales RU of course produced a conveyor belt of talent and Scotland chipped in with a few as well - the great Dave Valentine (Huddersfield), Ronnie Cowan, Drew Broatch & Alan Tait etc

In addition to the dual code internationals there have been many local players who came to RL from Union and became top League players Derek Hallas, John Atkinson and Sid Hynes to name a few.

You missed George Fairburn from your Scottish converts, weren't Hugh Waddell & George Graham also Union converts?
Bobbie Goulding I think played union to a high standard as a kid, keeping Kyran Bracken out of a rep side.

With regard to Eastmond. It seems as though St Helens have missed a trick here as they should have got him on a longer contract 2 season back when he first burst onto the scene. If he leaves at the end of the season, he is out of contract so no therefore no transfer fee. Union get a prize asset for free from League.

Saints should let him go now to the highest bidder.

Yes but I am not sure these were Scottish RU internationals though.

he's not forced to go though is he?

Was Drew Broatch? Genuine question as I didn't realise he had been capped by Scotland before heading South.

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Generally, if anything, you appear to be supporting the case for the prosecution. Given that in order to recall more than a single handful of Ex England RU Internationals you have had to go back several decades and even appear to have half included a player who first played for the full England RU side only after he'd completed his first crack at pro League.

To perhaps help the list along what can you recall of Peter Williams at Salford? I know he played for Wales in RL but I always thought he might have been an England RU International before he converted?

There's an interesting bit in one of the Rothmans RL Yearbooks (circa 1981, I think) about how Warrington spent months trying to woo 'Sir' Clive Woodward.

If you listen to the stories about those days when you could cop a life ban for playing League, there were a lot of coaches in northern England with massive league pedigrees coaching in the background at a lot of onion clubs and coupled with that, there were also a lot of lower league or decent amateur league players turning out for Union clubs under false names.

I'd say it is one of the fundamental reasons that when 'kick & clap' used to rave about their county championship series, there was usually a 'northern' county in there. Not because they filled their teams with moonlighting league players (that would be too obvious, even for the RFU old farts) but the players who played alongside them also had to be half-decent to get a game in a 'big' northern Union club sides.

Remember, in those days, the big Union club sides weren't like they are today ... There wasn't even a league as such (just look up the 'Northern Union (sic) Merit Table' for starters). Around here, the likes of Otley were considered to be a 'big' Union club and that was one of the reasons why they landed a game for the first 'kick & clap world cup' in '87.

Ah, yes .. Keith Fielding !

Anyone remember after KF turned pro and appeared on TV's 'Superstars' alongside the alledged cream of the England Union side (which IIRC, had just won the Grand Slam) Andy Ripley ?

Suffice to say, even with twice around the pitch and a bit of touch & pass training that league was in those days, Fielding easily owned Ripley.

And at the end, Fielding went home with a fat cheque and a nice big video under his arm (which was cutting edge stuff in those days) and to keep the RFU happy, the BBC had to make such a song & dance at the prize giving about Ripley's 'amateur' status ...

If correct who could have thought that Andy Ripley - being a lumbering, gigantuan back-rower had a prayer V a perfectly proportioned athletic type in Keith Fielding?

I doubt League could take too much credit from that.

I recall when Ed Moses was allowed to run V Fielding in the 100 meter at an International Superstars event. I thought it might be interesting .... it weren't. The true athlete was cantering .... no-one else in the frame.

Even more shocking Malcolm Macdonald was quicker (than Fielding) but not as quick as Des Drummond.

*Please note none of the above probably happened anything like I recall it.

pedant mode on

first kick and clap wc was 87. 91 was over here, i 'stewarded' at the USA v Italy game at cross green.

off

Ah you were the jobsworth back in that October Saturday.

Was that the one where Kevin Keegan fell of his bike or Jodie Schekter got caught putting olive oil on his socks during the squat thrusts ?

I would be interested to see how he played tonight, scored two tries but I wonder how much involvement he had in the rest of the game.

As a fan of both codes, it will be a loss to League but I would be happy if he is as successful as Ashton in Union. Though I think someone has mentioned before, Ashton had the chance to learn his trade in a lower league which was ideal and now we are seeing the benefits. Good luck to him.

Andy Ripley died last year I believe (aged just over 60) of prostate cancer.

In my example not sure if Fielding, Macdonald and Drummond ever competed directly but seem to recall they had each (in that order) set record Superstars times for the 100 Meters.

Didn't Macdonald once run a 11 second race on Superstars but it was ruled out as someone was disputing the start so they marched back up the track, re-set and went again. This time Macdonald did a 10.9 ...... that's good going.

I think Drummond eventually did a 10.85 out in Japan or such like.

There were some right shinanigans with the dips and squat thrusts. Jonah Barrington springs to mind here for some reason. Much better watching David Hemery's facial contortions from his 6th dip onwards than Brian Jacks pecking bird impressions.

Keegan was in a mess but good on him for getting back in the saddle. Can't imagine many footballers would do likewise these days.

the current equivalent in footballing terms would probably be Rooney? maybe we don't have anyone of the equivalent standing in european football that keegan had at that time, can you imagine the insurance premiums these days?

I can't but it can't be much more than what Robert Kubica is paying for his Skoda Fabia.

No I don't think that Drew got his full Scottish cap. I seem to remember he played in the trials and for South of Scotland so was close to becoming a full International.


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No I have said nothing to support your case. I simply listed eight England Internationals who became GB RL Internationals of note.

In fact you also have to go back more than 2 decades to find more than a handful of Welsh Internationals that converted to League.

There was a challange to name 5 England RU Internationals that coverted to League in the 70's, 80's & 90's. Well in my list are 3 (5 if you include the late 60's) that converted during that time to which I will add Mike Lampkowski (Wakefield Trinity) and Nigel Heslop who signed for Oldham in the 90's so that makes 5.

Back in the pre-pro RU days, the reason that there were more Welsh RU International players than English that converted to League is nothing to do with what League could afford to pay or that the English RU produced less talented rugby players.

The motivation for the Welsh to convert was for better financial security as the typical Welsh International came from a poor mining background. Whereas the typical England RU International came from a wealthy / public school / establishment background with excellent future career prospects so money was not the motivation.

However in the North of England there has always been a cross over and RU has been a rich breeding ground for many talented RL players who learnt their basic rugby in the RU code. eg Offiah, Atkinson etc

With the advent of pro RU the pendulum has swung in their favour for the converts. Whist it means we lose some of the most talented players it does have a side benefit that raises the profile of League on a National level.

With Jason Robinson and now Ashton our code gets TV & Press mentions every time they score. Add to this the success as RU coaches from former League players from Larder to Shaun Edwards it is not all bad news. Maybe some of the new Ashton/Robinson fans will realise that League produces some unique talent and star to follow our game as well.