news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 323885.stm I don't know if it's been mentioned already, but here's the story. Watched him play for England Academy before christmas and he looked really promising.

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 323885.stm I don't know if it's been mentioned already, but here's the story. Watched him play for England Academy before christmas and he looked really promising.

Signed for 2 years. Meant to play U20s, but may play in the open age NSW Cup comp for experience against grown ups.

Be interesting to get the Bradford fans thoughts on this. If this was my club, I would not be very happy. First Sam Burgess and now the promising George Burgess before he has even made a first team appearance. Alright, Tom Burgess has stayed with the club, but from a Bradford prospective I would have loved to have seen all three in action for the club.

double edged sword imo. Might improve Englands chances but weakens SL. Do you really want a club comp with the best players playing overseas?

Nrl clubs have had to fight off sl sides for years, the boots on the other foot and sl sides don't like it. Tough.

Hardly, it has been very rare that a current Kangaroo has signed for SL, generally they have been avg squad players or occasionally a decent player that's misbehaved and booted out of NRL or an aging player at the end of his career. Every now and again you get a decent contract disputed player but I would struggle to name 5 world class NRL players that have signed for SL in their prime.

matt king and danny buderus where both kangaroo 1st teamers when they came here

Matt King I'll give you, Buderus was at the end and Smith would have been no1 hooker even if he'd stayed. Buderus last game for Kangaroos was 06, he signed for Leeds for 09 season, he'd already lost his starting Kangaroos jersey.

It doesn't really matter what people think. If any player wants to leave there is little anyone can do to prevent it, contract or no contract. To be completely open about it, I'm far more interested in the players who want to play for the club than those who wish to go. Good luck to both of them, but if Sam goes backwards and George doesn't make the grade it's been brilliant business by the Bulls, they didn't want to stay here anyway, so were hardly going to give their best if forced to see out their contracts, so however well they play in future is pretty irrelevant.

Are we now to think that after 15 years of Superleague we are deemed good enough to to be a feeder comp for the NRL?

The reality is that Sydney offers young people a lifestyle that Bradford, or indeed most places in the UK, doesn't. Some people will be attracted to it, others won't be. I'm sure that the Burgess brothers have nothing against the Bulls but ultimately, it appears that they feel that their careers and their lifestyle are likely to benefit living nearer to Bondi than Buttershaw.

There's not much that the SL clubs can do about that. We recently had Eammon McMannus [url=http://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=rleague/10/11/18/RUGBYL_St_Helens_McManus.insdatclaiming that the RFL needs to "do something"[/url to stop the likes of James Graham moving to the NRL whilst, in the same breath, admitting that Graham wasn't being motivated by the money on offer in Australia but by the lifestyle. How on earth can the RFL "do something" about that?

Yes, the exchange rate helps but in all seriousness, could you blame a player who is good enough to play in the NRL from giving it a go?

Indeed and then add in the fact that they will very probably come back a better player for it.
Everyone agrees that as far as RL goes its Southern hemisphere or bust ATM we need as many British players playing in that enviroment as possible as when they return 'Home' they will bring that RL enviroment back with them and hopefully to pass on to the next generation.

You areboth probably right. It wasn't such a bad thing when we had our better players oing down under in the 'off season' pre SL. Now it hits home because they are not going on temporary contracts.

I know where I'd go if given the chance.

That's 2 of bradfords best young players that have left recently.... Ouchie

We've also lost Joe Wardle to Hudds, so that's 3 by my count.

It doesn't matter though, because next season we've got IAN SIBBIT.

We've re-signed the likes of Whitehead and Addy who were our two most promising youngsters last year. We can't bust the salary structure for players that have just a single 1st team appearance or less. If Hudders or Wire want to spend a fortune on such players then we have to just target the ones we really want to keep.

At least we have first refusal on George Burgess if he comes back to SL.

I have no problem with English players going to the NRL, there are many positives.

It is a negative when your own club cannot hang on to certain players, but that is not exclusive to loaded NRL teams. If your club currently sits in one of the lower leagues or even one of the less well off ones in SL, you will no doubt be used to seeing the cream of your crop be skimmed off to play for silly money at a rich club who sits near the top of the SL.

Who can blame them? A RL career is short and wages don't go far once you've retired, it's a professional sport, is it not? The only way to counterbalance this would be to adopt something similar to the American Football franchises.

Straight into the England squad for him then.

This is an absolute tragedy for rugby.

To keep the game competitive internationally and keep the Oz game strong, they need to put a cap on all the foreign imports, the Oz youngsters over there will never get a chance....

Oi, don't laugh! With Sterling now worth only about AUD 1.50 c/w 2.40 a couple of years ago, and the wage inflation in the NRL, all of a sudden promising young Brits will look like very good value for money to NRL clubs. George won't be the last.

You forgot to count Menzies...

Who the hell gave you permission to come on here and talk total and complete sense?

This will never do.


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Been to Sydney. Been on Bondi Beach. Argument totally irrefutable IMO. In his shoes, I would be off in a flash.

Everybody minus one I guess

I can't see how we are going to improve our national team by weakening our national competition, how can that be a formulae for success?

Australian RL has reached its current level (althoughthe current level is actually on the slide from its peak) by having a strong cometetition to nuture and develop their players and then to top it off Origin to blood them for high intensity rugby (the best standard of RL in the world till the Kiwis came along but the Aussies still think it is)

A couple of quick questions.
Will Burgess and Ellis come 'home' better players for playing in the NRL with the experience that brings?
Would it then be a good idea to have those players 'mentoring' young players coming through the youth setups of the SL clubs they end up at?
Yes we lose them in the short term but in the long term we will probably benefit far more than we lose.

My answers

It is too early to tell with Burgess but I have seen no evidence that Ellis is a better player than when he went to the NRL. He was a pretty complete second row in his final seasons at Leeds and if international rugby is to be used as a benchmark, he hasn't improved to any extent I can see

As for the mentoring - isn't that what the coaches are paid to do?

I would rather Ellis and Burgess be providing competition to our young players (in the same team and on the field) than mentoring them when they return from the NRL to a competition that will be easier for them to play in and pick up their 'pension'

I maintain - we will be better off in the long term by creating a competition that is of the highest standard we can