I'm not suggesting they couldn't make the grade, just I think it's a waste of time and money if you want to be realistic about it. What do the Welsh outside backs, or rugby pros in general, have athletically that can't be found elsewhere for a fraction of the money. If we wanted to nick some union players what's wrong with the guys running around in the ITM or Currie cup, Sevens players or amateurs playing in places like Fiji, Samoa, even America where there's an untold number of failed football players with freakish physical talents. Wales is Wales, it's not the home of many stand-out athletes or particularly skilled players



As I see it most rugby players signed by a league team will effectively need to be taught the basics of the game and they'll 100% need whipping into shape. In the last year the NRL have brought through Hurrell and Koroibete, with athletic talents like that plucked from just about nothingness what's the incentive to be looking at backs from the Welsh team or pro teams? If you can give the core skills to athletes with no pro experience then why break the bank on established players with a huge price tag? I don't understand the logic to be honest. You could lose count of the number of completely ordinary rugby league players walking into international union outfits and displacing union players. Tomane and Vuna are playing for the Wallabies... Tomane and Vuna.

Where's Andy Powell? Off somewhere being taught how to play the game and training his .

"The bravery taking the ball into contact at full speed is admirable, and their ability to spot an overlap shows a vision that not many union players possess." - John Beattie on RL, 2010. Beattie is a league fan so he doesn't mind admitting it.

RU kinda struggles in Australia and has for a while. They tried to set up an Aussie domestic comp a few years ago similar to the Currie Cup but attendances were so bad and so much money was lost that it was scrapped after a year.

They still draw the crowds for internationals, though.

Owen Farrell will never move to RL !!

He is the J.Wilkinson Mk2

He can kick goals, get all the praise whilst strolling around in the backs and never having to get dirty.

Farrell has played plenty RL at schools level and was in the Wigan scholarship scheme.
Why would he want to move back here?
He's an England Union International, now on a Lions tour and is a nationally known sporting figure. His earnings will be vast.
What would he be if he'd stayed in Wigan?
No.6 perhaps, aged 21/22, not a chance of making the International squad due to a useless England coach and his favourite for the job, not to mention far better players in front of him.
I can't think of any good reason why Owen Farrell would want to return to Wigan or Rugby League.

So that he could learn to play Rugby properly , that way people will not spend the next 20 years saying,
[size=150" he's nowhere near as good as his dad was" !!!.[/size

If we ever get ourselves together and get some decent cash coming in, Union converts would be a great way for London Broncos to get some headlines and grab some attention from the Union supporters.

Players like North, Tuilagi and Bastareaud would be great to watch and there'd be plenty of big union backrowers like Haskell who'd make very good prop forwards.

Tuilagi is just another example of where our sport can often be disappointing. Why wasn't he scouted and signed when he first came here? Everybody and their Mum knew from the day he landed that he was going to be a beast, just like his 87 older brothers, a couple of which played league. A team with some sense would have signed Alesana, and gotten a young Manu for about nothing on top of that. Having Alesana alone would have been a massive scalp in itself, given he was something of a cult hero at Leicester, more so than Manu has proven to be up to now.

Oakland Raiders picked up a lad from Manchester the other week called Menelik Watson. I've heard him say in interviews he enjoyed playing rugby. A basketball academy in the Canary Islands scouted him but none of the league teams noticed him. He should be playing in SL.

The Hask would be a great signing. There are a few good players who've played in Japan, which to me indicates they'll chase the yankee dollar and would be open to league, Haskell is one of them.

Joe Marler would make a good convert imo. He'd fit in well with his outlandish haircuts.

I went to work today and a guy was going crazy about Karl Eastmond. All I could think of was a shame RL lost a potential quality Half back, something this country lacks massively.

i have seen 14 year olds with better core skills and ball handling, they are like a steroid up version of ah van

KYLE Eastmond did score a good try yesterday only against Argentina but it was still a good try just over exagerated by the commentators.

Stats from the Lions test this morning. Check out the work rate of these athletes, they'd just rip SL up sport.uk.msn.com/rugby-union/lio ... econd-test

Stats from the Lions test this morning. Check out the work rate of these athletes, they'd just rip SL up sport.uk.msn.com/rugby-union/lio ... econd-test

Quote ="Wildmoose"Stats from the Lions test this morning. Check out the work rate of these athletes, they'd just rip SL up sport.uk.msn.com/rugby-union/lio ... econd-test'" The only stats that stand out are those of Folau's... We don't need any RU players in our game (except for Andy Powell of course )

Quote ="Wildmoose"Stats from the Lions test this morning. Check out the work rate of these athletes, they'd just rip SL up sport.uk.msn.com/rugby-union/lio ... econd-test'" The only stats that stand out are those of Folau's... We don't need any RU players in our game (except for Andy Powell of course )

Quote ="Wildmoose"Stats from the Lions test this morning. Check out the work rate of these athletes, they'd just rip SL up sport.uk.msn.com/rugby-union/lio ... econd-test'" they'll still get 6 pages of coverage in every broad sheet in the morning....we might get six lines.

Quote ="Wildmoose"Stats from the Lions test this morning. Check out the work rate of these athletes, they'd just rip SL up sport.uk.msn.com/rugby-union/lio ... econd-test'" they'll still get 6 pages of coverage in every broad sheet in the morning....we might get six lines.

15 tackles makes you a top tackler in international union?! Jeebus!

Made me laugh when they said currently its the rookie (alluding to Folau) who is outplaying the seasoned pro (north, who they have a w@nk fest over everytime he does his 2 things a game!!). How they can dare call him a rookie to rugby, he's currently the best player in ru without even trying and to be fair they had a little jizz about him to. Imagine if they saw GI or the Hayne train who are better then Folau!!

Even some of the union fans on twitter were criticising how average it is. The one thing I'm in awe of is the promo and coverage of it. Theyre so positive about it that the people who don't know how s**t it is believe the hype and buy into it. It's genius, I sound sarcastic but I genuinely think it is.

7 runs for 6 metres. I am in awe!

Does that qualify as a 'run'?

Agree with this, they just gloss over the mistakes too. There must be a dropped ball every few minutes its just ignored.

The ARU showed they are no mugs when it comes to the public relations by making up some test ending injury 6 hours after an arrest warrant was issued for digby ioane and basically halted it becoming a major media talking point.

RU is run by some very clever, media savvy people...its top to bottom full of people that know how to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear....all on message....all pulling together to pull the wool over peoples eyes. If only we had 30% of their PR machine in this country.

Their job is made 100 times easier with sympathetic media and companies.

It is genius. It's the most godawful spectator sport in the world, apart from womens soccer, yet the occasion is something else.

Its probably because RU is played by and sits in the higher echelons of society both in the UK and Aus and has intelligent people at its heart.
Unlike the overweight toothless goons we see running and watching league.