One of our Irish RU imports. Number 11 for U20s on Friday and he is a unit. Scored a try as well. But I've seen him in a couple of games and he looks to just trundle the the ball in and turn (a la RU/Paul Clough style). Hope he grows out of this because he has the build to be one hell of a prop. He must be nearly 7ft.

If he keeps playing and improving we might have one tank of a prop. (hallelujah)

Funnily enough, Id just come on to aks about them.

Remembered about them this morning and wondered because I hadnt heard anything more after their signing.

Sounds good

Did you get a good look at Cross? I saw that he was named in the side as well.

Its like the Brotherton shenanigans last year when because certain fans heard we had signed a fast lad they wanted him in the team, regardless of how he was actually acquitting himself. Now we sign two lads from that exotic far away place called Ireland, and people are getting all in a tiz about them.

The harsh reality is that these two irish lads would not even be being talked about if they were from St.Helens.

I thought he look pretty crap when I seen him. He's sluggish and can't run.

Who? Brotherton?

No, the Irish giant.

The thing with Brotherton was the write ups he was getting. It seemed from the match reports that he was terrorising teams and scoring 2-3 tries a week, often from distance.

To b fair, no one's really talking about Cross. McClosky gets extra attention because he's frickin huge, so people assume he's got potential.

I don't understand the negativity on here. Brian Carney wasn't a proper league player when Gateshead snapped him up, didn't stop him being one of the best in the world by his peak.

No reason why either of these players couldn't make it to the first team.

Both McCloskey and Cross were picked up during a development camp in Limerick last year for the Irish Wolfhounds. There were a number of clubs in attendance including Wigan and of course the Irish coach Mark Aston who also coaches Sheffield Eagles. These two lads were very appreciative of the opportunity they were getting from Saints and aware of the huge step up in standard they would be making. Watching these two last year as well as a number of other Union lads trying their hand at league really showed how different the two games are and what issues they face in trying to adapt. I really hope they have some success and Saints get some reward for taking them on.

Fassavalu took 3 yrs to start playing well for Saintsicon_confused.gif: not even playing well just getting into the first team

I watched McCloskey score his try. He looks like a bloke who is conscious of his size. He would look much more comfortable in the first team but he won't yet be up to playing at that level. I think both McCloskey and Cross are on dual registration deals with North Wales Crusaders. Cross played in the Welsh derby and missed a couple of conversions (Jono Smith took over kicking duties at one point). McCloskey didn't play in that match. He's probably been brought back because of injuries to the forwards in the first team requiring some u20s players to be available for cover like Greenwood and Forster.

Given that these guys only started playing at pro level in the off season in France they must be doing quite well if they are now taking their place in the u20s team. Whether they will improve enough to ever play in the first team I don't know. If McCloskey has some aggression in him then with the right skills, confidence and experience he could be a real bonus at first team level.

What do you mean?

I think he means because he went through and over the defenders rather than trying to step them

Right, the way I read it sounded negetive, as if he was not at home with his size.

I took it to mean that he feels daft playing against academy players as he's physically far bigger than the other players. Imagine yourself playing with a team full of kids, you would feel out of place.

If that were true, he'd be ripping it up, wouldn't he? Given that Forster's the latest to get called up to the firsts, I'd guess he's not doing.

Not so much daft, as awkward. However, it might simply have been that he didn't have to travel far to score and so didn't plough over them. But if he had have done, they would have been ironed into the ground, Tom & Jerry stylee.