editted for accuracy

The list would run to every club bar Leeds I would suspect?

It is an interesting idea which I thought was completely bonkers when I first heard it. I am not sure how it would pan out though as even with sponsorship I can't see how top quality international players could be tempted to leave now that Union players earn the money they do.

1. RU backs are no better than what we have currently and I would say they're actually worse.

2. Noble is getting the excuses in already because he knows the game has moved on from his coaching techniques.

3. It says a lot about his faith in Wigoon's youth policy if he feels that he should be turning towards RU to be a success.

Are there any players in RU better than we already have in RL. If there are they are certainly not worth spending huge sums on.
RL wants to concentrate on it`s own youth policy, as we have the talent in our own backyard.

Players will always go where the money is, if the biggest money was at League clubs players would come across, but it's not so they won't

and Hull, and Saints most probably would be profit making now, had it not been for the poor administration prior to Mcmanus

id expect both Wire and Hudds to be in a position to take advantage of nobles idea easily aswell

also id say clubs like Wakefield would find it easier to find a sponsor willing to get their name in the paper by spending £300k on a marquee player than they would getting someone to invest in their business

probably all clubs should feel the same, in the 13th year of SL no british club has produced a world class back 5 player,

Englands best two wingers, and best two centres of the last probably 10 years havent come from the british RL system, no club has managed to bring through a back 5 player of real quality at all in SL

Well where is it?
I'll ask the question again, how many top class backs have we produced since Superleague was instigated.

There's nobody more supportive of young players than I, regardless of who they play for, but the plain fact is that there is not enough quality coming through


Are there any better players in Rugby Union

The answer to that is we don't know.


Look at the Wales backline in 1995
Harris, Devereaux, Gibbs, Bateman, Sullivan, Davies and Ellis.

Five of those came from Rugby Union.

Are you telling me that they would not benefit Rugby League and GB team.

I don't think the idea should dismissed out of hand without a decent discussion or proposed amendments.

Which rugby union players would you take ?

Certainly none from the English RU - there backs are quite frankly sh*te!! Sackey, Tindall. Noon etc... would all make very average rugby league players.

The only players that are worth signing are a few Aussies, Kiwis and Brian Habana of South Africa. However none of the southern Hemisphere players like leaving there countries because they then give up playing for their countries.

It;s a sh*t idea and rather pathetic, just play young lads like Ainscough - give them time andwatch them Flourish FFS!!

An over reliance on overseas players and the ability in the past to raid RU perhaps?

The fact that he's coming out with this idea just as he has a number of potentially great backs in his youth teams is a damning indictment on him and his coaching IMO.

Short term Wigan tinking.

A £100k contract on an RU player would be better spent on developing youngsters in link ups with St. Judes/Pats etc.

even if RL as a sport still doesnt attract those players with the natural abilities to play in the three-quarters?

there are probably 15 players of each generation in the whole country to be a truely world class three-quarter, if RU are taking all of these, it doesnt matter how much we put into youth development, if the players arent there, we arent going to bring them through

Rugby Union doesn't take many youth players away from league. Our Andrew Johns', Darren Lockyer's and Israel Falou's are playing Sunday league football because playing a mickey mouse sport like rugby league never crossed their mind or wasn't an option because they weren't brought up along a few miles of the M62.

they take plenty, any player playing RU is one taken away from RL

I'm up for debate on this one.
Yes there are flaws in the proposal, and I've always advocated pro clubs forming alliances with the local amateur clubs, but throwing money at young players does not make them better.

What Brian Noble is advocating is cherry picking some of the best Rugby Union talent.

I accept that we (as a sport) have to be able to afford it, and I presume that is why he was looking at the sponsorship and image rite route.

Surely by spreading the net further we have a better chance of bringing top class talent into the game.

I have some thoughts on that as well which I'll share on here at a later date.

I really don't think that we as game can afford to be so insular.

Its not insular its about having faith and investing in your own talent.

In the past RL signed RU players for two main reasons.

1. RU wasnt professional so working class RU players who wanted to make a decent living had no choice but to sign for RL clubs.

2. The sporting apartheid sytem that existed within the UK until the mid 1990's whereby RL was treated as an outlaw sport, forbidden to be played in most schools, colleges, the armed forces etc meant that the sport was historically denied huge swathes of talent, and therefore had no option than to sign up RU players, athletes or even wrestlers. This has now changed with a genuine open gangway throughout society, and it now means RL for the first time can truly invest in developing its own young talent. Hence the huge national growth in children playing the sport.

The best 50k any RL could invest in would be to bring the best youth coaches over from Australia. It would take a few years to pay off but it would definitely work It's what the successful Olympics teams did, just poached the best Aussie coaches, and look at the Brit medal success as a result.

Coaching/conditioning is the area where Australia is streets ahead of SL and Union for that matter.

It's not just that though.

When I was in us for the World Cup I had along conversation with a former Aussie International player, about the dreadful state of the English team and what could be done to improve it.

His response was that the many of junior Aussie players are "cherry picked" at a young age and sent by their clubs to specific schools which specialised in sport, Rugby League in particular.

Rugby Union are doing it now to a certain degree I know of one young Sale player who ha been "placed" in a University close to home to alow him to continue his studies but train on with the Sale squad.

Even before professionalism in RU, you had private schools like Kirkham offering scholarships to u17 and u18 internationals players.

I can't remember which school it was, but I went to watch mini-ski play up in the North East. While walking round the halls, I noticed the Underwood brothers names. I remembered then a friend who I was best mates with all the way through school down south. His dad had got one into school based on Rugby ability but suffered an injury that was career ending back then. I was at the same school as he attended. And all around the walls, school boy internationals.

Greenwood (I think) got the same over Blackburn way.

The problem we have, are such specialist powerhouse schools going for Rugby League?

Wiga have now formed a partnership with Lancaster University that will allow some young players the opportunity to further their education whilst in Wigan academy.

It's a step in the right direction.

Saints don't have an exact match to that, but they will not let an Academy player play without having a trade/education behind them. Players like Wilkin and Roby have done degrees, while Thompson remained part time so he could carry on as a builder.

Kirkham, from up past Lancaster, covered our area and I remember one from the south west called Colston. In the [idaily mail[/i cup, 6 of the 8 quarter finalist tended to be the same teams.

Professionalism in RU and the signing of kids as young as 16 has bypassed this sort of thing now, mind.

Talking about RU players, Matthew Tait is a lovely player and, assuming his defence could hold up, would be a good signing for a SL club imo. So long as he's getting his club england pay though, it would be a far too expensive gamble for a poor northern club to take.

Bollocks!

I dont think you would be so accomdating should the situation be revered.

It would serve to inflate agents pockets and I am pretty convinved there would be a significant number of recruits who would return to Union with their bank accounts boosted by a couple of years in League.

Hardly what the game needs, and prime example of putting a band aid on a severed artery.

Then again, you would expect as much from a man who once played Mike Forshaw at hooker.