Just a thought but if Sam doesn't like Oz after a year, do we still have the set up with Souths to do swapsies? Still under contract to South so Bradford's buy back clause out of the way for quite a while

and yes, I am being silly but it's my birthday and I'm allowed to be!

I will be happy as long as Luke does not go with him, to Manly according to Stevo.

That seems to be the danger.
Although Luke is the elder, Sam appears to be the head of the Burgess household.
Personally it could be the making of Luke if he did go & to the benefit of England.

I would rather him stay where he is right now, he seems to be coming along very nicely where he is.

I think every club should be forced to send their best 4 English players to the NRL.

We'd have a competitive national side then.

And nobody would watch SL

Join the good side son..

How many "English" players were playing in Australia the last time we won the ashes?

Is that a rugby union shirt?

Sending the best players would be fairly pointless - Jamie Peacock won't get much better. Sending young good players would be a big benefit.

But how many were playing there shortly afterwards (or at least the '72 world cup) ?

As well as the change in Australian Rugby coaching methods, taking the game to a massive new level down under during the late 70s onwards, it is also worth remembering that there was a transfer ban between the two countries for a period.

It was a short-sighted attempt by the RFL to keep the British talent here in the UK during that time to stop a 'brain drain'. Certainly Steveo, Phil Lowe and Brian Lockwood went off to ply their trade down under.

The story with Steveo playing for Penrith came about when the Australian team's representatives went to Dewsbury .... After speaking to the board at Crown Flatt, they asked them to name a price for his services. The story goes that a Dewsbury director plucked what he thought was a wild figure out of the air (so big, as to put them off) and blurted it out .... Apparently the Aussies when 'thank you very much' and wrote out the cheque there and then.

The bottom line is that the NRL is the best domestic competition in the world, with derby-intensity matches week in week out. If any British player thinks they're good enough and wants to try the lifestyle there, then why should we stop them ? They're certainly not going for the money (with the NRL salary cap, they get paid less than here) and the world is getting smaller. It is no longer 6 weeks on a boat to Sydney. Playing in that sort of competition can only benefit a British national side.

At the time Stevo was married to the daughter of one of the said Dewsbury Directors.

Stevo had no inclination, didn't want to go and neither did his wife.

What a bizarre scenario for your father in law to say "I've just sold you and you and my daughter must now clear off half way around the world."

Dewsbury's treatment of Stevo was appalling. They had a team photo taken for their championship squad, which Stevo captained. They then had another one taken without him and put that one up on the walls.

Many years later he was named Dewsbury's greatest ever player.

If you haven't read Stevo's book its' well worth a read and reminds you he was much more to this game than the buffoon who makes mistakes on Sky now.