Sonny Bill Williams and Stuart Littler

Both classics, these.

I remember a price of 250k being mentioned for Hanley, which was astronomical at the time - I think the record outright fee then was the 100k paid by Wigan for Joe Lydon. The football record between British clubs was only £1.5 million then. Anyway, whilst queuing up on Fletcher Street (may even have been for an A team game), Tony Barrow walked past and someone shouted "two hundred and fifty for Hanley, Tony?", to which he replied "I haven't got 250 pennies"



As far as the Gregory one goes, I recall the word was that he was going to sign for Wigan at half-time of the New Year's Day game.

Will Carling.

I remember Cat phoning me and saying "guess who we've signed....." I thought it was a wind up then he said go on Sky Sports News....

Although in Iestyn Harris' autobiography he said that although that April Fool thing was a wind up, Warrington did come in for him later in the season when he left Cardiff and came back to league, but he chose Bradford.

the facebook account which said in the worst french possible that he had signed was brilliant.

I remember Geordie going to one of the Wire Q&A shindigs then coming back on here saying that TS had told him we were signing Sonny Bill.

Yeah, I knew we registered an interest, but I heard that Cullen turned him down, wanted to much wages & Cull thought he was past his best...........which, he never did fully cope with the speed of League again after playing Union !!!

We also had the union winger on trial last season that never went anywhere
(sorry if it's been mentioned before)

Think that's a debatable point. The game had moved on and defences had smartened up so he couldn't dominate as an individual the way he did from 94-01. But he played some good rugby in a very strong Bradford side which won SL in 2005, and even in the next couple of years after that as they started to go into decline and he lost the big guns around him, he was still a decent player. When he was in the team they were still competitive, they have nosedived since he retired.

I think in fairness to Harris, when he went from league to union he realised he couldn't play the same game he was used to playing in league, and couldn't dominate as an individual, so he had to adapt, and he did, he became an effective RU player. Then when he came back to league, he realised again that he couldn't play his old league game in league any more either, so he had to adapt again, and he did, he became an effective RL player second time around. People say he was a disappointment in union and 2nd time round in league only because he was so dominant in league first time round. I would always give him credit, its like Sean Long, before he did his knee in 2001 when he was super quick, Long used to rip everyone to shreds, and he couldn't do that after the edge went off his pace, but he adapted to still be a very effective player for a long time.

There were other guys who we got in on trial and never played in the first team, eg Nicky Royle and Craig Calvert, both of them were supposed to be the fastest thing on legs and people said it doesn't matter if you can't tackle, if you've got pace, like they said about Penny. Hicks, Riley and Joel Monaghan were quick enough though, and proper wingers.

Agree with the speed bit, Buck. Harris had decent speed with us & Leeds, but looked like we was running through cold treacle, when he returned. A few too many pints of Brains SA and Clarke's Pies, I'll guess.
But Harris had never lost anything between his ears, when he came back to our game.

Let's cast our minds back to SL2007
We'd just beaten Wigan at Wigan, in the first game of the season, and, as usual with us lot, expectation was high.
Next game, Bradford at home (remember the game, Grose was NEVER obstructed at the end, but Pondlife Corner decided to pelt the ChuckleBrother lookalike linesman with beer bottles. DISGRACEFULL). We go in at halftime with a narrow margin lead, and Harris tore us another bottomhole in the second half, with a masterclass. All this, with the speed of a stalagtite

I remember the (intense, for rlfags standards) debate on here over this. It was when Lowes was destroying us, many of our fans were saying things like "Smith's shown himself to be average with England", etc., with many saying the old "must go British, Kear or Hanley", t'was fun.


Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Hodgson a player we were linked with and then signed? I think it was just before we signed King, there was heavy speculation we were after him but we went for King, then I think he was rumoured with Wigan. (Hodgson that is, as was King before we got him)

Any particular one?

Is he referring to the Leeds Tykes, formely Rhino's winger.. name also escapes me.

Few more-

Ben Cockyane
Zak Hardaker
John Steele
Martin Moana (several times if I remember right)
Jamie Peacock
Brent Webb

England rugby union international and Bristol fly half Paul Hull, took about 2-3 months to think over a contract with us then turned it down.

David Doherty?

Reading an old old Wires U net fan site, it notes Wigan's Lee Hansen, Terry OConnor, and Barrow's Brett McDermott were all too expensive back in 1998.

There are also several amusing reports of Mike Wainwright, Warren Stevens, and John Duffy being put on the transfer list - for money



Wainwright £75,000
Stevens £45,000
Duffy £35,000

Take a bow son.

I seem to remember a strong Ruben Wiki rumour doing the rounds aswell around the time of the Kimmorley rumour.

Didn't the press link us with Mark Bryant pretty much after Leikvoll went, similar build etc. I think we were linked with him and that Ray Cashmere at different times.

Two players who you would have always bet your house on ending up in Super League but for some reason they never came. Ruben Wiki was always one of my favourite players, I would put him in the Morley class.

I seem to remember in 2002 one of the Squadbuilder meetings when David Plange said something about him being in talks with a high profile Aussie centre that he wanted to bring over here for 2003 and I always wondered who that was. One of the Aussie papers around that time said that Russell Richardson was looking at options in Super League and I put two and two together and thought it might be him.

Also when Francis Meli was linked with Saints, I remember reading an interview in the paper with his agent who had said that Warrington were one of the clubs who had made an approach.

Other players that I've remembered who we were linked with -
Martin Offiah (at the end of 1999)
Paul Sterling (as a loan spell when Forster broke his arm early in his last season of 2000)

Then in 2002 when we were really in a mess and looking for players there were stories linking us with Vaiga Tuigimala and Scott Gibbs. Plange said at Squadbuilder he'd checked Tuigimala out but was unsure about the state of his fitness, I think the phrase used was "Vietnamese pot bellied pig". Ironically he then signed Appo instead! Scott Gibbs I would have loved to have signed in 2002, but nothing came of that.

When we signed Grose I think the story went that originally we were looking to sign Duncan McGillivray at Souths who was Sid Domics brother in law (I think) but then became aware of Grose (who was also at Souths) being available, he was backpacking around Europe at the time so Cullen told him when he came to England to come and meet him.

Paul Rowley was one from years ago..
Martin Moana was another..

Tony Puletua