news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 834917.stm

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 834917.stm

Can't really slag the pies off after just signing eight of their youth team. At least they have got decent players and not just Aussies at the twilight of their career.

we would not be moaning if we were in super league and we had signed them

I've been watching the NRL this season and the pies have got some tidy players there , and that Brett Finch is a real talent

...and how many of those eight will just go out on Dual Contract or Loans to Championship clubs next season, as most will never have a first team career at W"£$n. I also predict that many who were on dual contract this year will not stay with their SL clubs.

SL clubs are still finding ways of bypassing the quota rules..see wire next season. They will have 6 (5 the limit but still too many) but have got the RFL to remove one of them from coming under the quota rules, but would not specify who or how.

Those are two different arguments Demon mate. As for the quota thing I have a straight forward view on it. If you were not born in the UK or you don't have imediate grand parents that were born in the UK then you are in the quota. Stuff all this been here for 5 years or your great great grand parent had a british passport. But it's not the clubs who make the rules is it? So you can't blame them for what they do.

Better players make the competition better, which gives us a better product for the TV viewer at home, better viewing numbers give better TV contracts.

Interesting theory...but if you look at, for example, college football in the USA...how is it that 70,000 people turn up to watch college kids and the TV figures are huge?
The answer is complex of course, but culture, feeling of belonging to your team and the rejection of {atrficial} corperate franchises in the pro game have to do with it.
RL is not American football - but there are lessons to learn there.

Which is then spent on even more Aussie 'stars' (and I use the term very losely becuase there isn't ONE in the UK I would go out of my way to watch) which then prevents young British talent from developing fully.

That's one of the reasons we'll never catch up with them - we have not produced ONE world class half back, centre, full back, or hooker since we started filling these positions en-masse with foreigners 15-20 years ago.

Only Cunningham got anywhere near.

We've not stopped producing the Mylers, Woods, Edwards, Hanleys, Connollys, and Hampsons - we've just stopped developing them becuase Johnny Foreigner provides a short term fix rather than a long term solution.

So aye, you keep whoring the game out if it makes you happy but don't moan when we're still getting hammered by the Aussies in 20 years time.

Two differnet points of view actually, and I see you agree with my second paragraph and have made no comment on my first point

Your first Demon has been happening since I was at Leigh Colts in 1978. There will always be players that a club signs but never make the first team. It's not a new thing and is definiitely not just somethng that the pies do. I only hope we don't do what the big fuzzballl clubs do and sign foreign juniors and bring them through as that will kill off any chance of british tallent making the grade.

Don't need to sign foreign juniors, too many foreign seniors signed. The England/GB side will never touch the Aussies as there is only about 60/70 English players to chose from in SL (they won't look at Championship) and we are severely limited in several positions due to that.

I also expect Ty and Matty B to leave Wire next season, as they will not be given a chance to develop in the first team. It also seems silly to stay with a club who occasionally wants to rest their highly paid foreigners before a cup final or play off game.

SPOT ON

I can see both of sides of this to an extent, as I think playing alongside Finch will bring Sam Tomkins on leaps and bounds. However, I personally feel there should be a stricter limit on imports, and particularly at 6,7 & 9.

goulding
gleeson
s.tomkins
j.tomkins
prescott
fielden
lockers
mcilurom
mossop
farrell

10 first teamers all english

tuson
charnley
o'carroll
davies
ainscough
marsh
mellor
walker


6 of the 8 reserves part from mellor (injury) have played first team this year.

4 quota players leaving 3 coming in.


i think wigan are doing there fair sure for the english game.

Thats because the quota rules say so, incidentally they are not reducing the number of Aussies a SL team can have, but they are reducing foreign trained nationals (which includes the 5 quota players). Which basically means that they are reducing the number you can have on an EU passport. So the 'European SL', becasue thats what it was/is called, is actually reducing the number of European players SL teams can have, incredible

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quota_playersLINK HERE[/url

Tomkins has the raw talent to become one of the best and for a Wiganer I actually enjoy watching him, provided they lose of course.

In the last generation only Harris (in my opinion) has looked as good as him at his age. Hopefully he will, for Englands sake and playing alongside great players will help him enormously.

But what do you you think would happen if Lockyer or Thurstons agents rang Lenegan up and said 'are you interested in them?'.

Are you sure he or the club would say 'no thanks mate, we're cooking one for the future here'. I'm honestly not convinced they would even if the quota and cap allowed.

Rightly or wrongly, I don't think any club would turn down the chance to sign one of the top Aussie half-backs - as long as the clubs come before country then this will always be the case, although Tomkins is one of the few players in SL who would actually have a chance of competing for a spot against such imports.

Too many foreigners full stop.

Just cap it to two.

This is the only way we will compete with the aussies and develop our own talent rather than being more than rugby playing prostitutes !

There are no artificial franchises in ARL? Are you sure about that? Raiders, Colts and Rams fans would probably argue with that, they get shunted at the whim of the owner.
70k may turn up to watch College games too, but that's not the equivelent of Wigan College playing Leeds Carnegie!

It's an entirely different ball game. It just looks a little similar

SL doesn't have the strength in depth of NRL. Adding quality players to the player pool improves the overall standard of competition. It challenges players with more intensity, because lads who would have got into the Wigan team previously will be signed by other SL teams. There are better players spread trhoughout the top sides, so there are less easy games, and the level of competition is higher. If, say, 20% of our players were top class imports (and it's nowhere near that high), the other 80% homegrown talent will be better prepared to play at international level, because the gap in class will be that much smaller, and because any English player capapble of getting into a team will of necessity be of a higher calibre than previously. There's a knock-on effect (no pun intended) that the Championship is made stronger too, and so is Championship 2, so late-developers or players working up through the UK leagues are challenged more, and earlier in ther careers. That's how it helps the English game.

Maybe, just maybe, when the number of overseas players gets so high that English players don't get a chance, there could be a problem, but we're miles away from that, and the argument might be for a ban on imports below SL, while increasing the number of genuinely top class foreigners in the top level of the game. Any club will sign the best available and affordable talent, whether it comes from NRL or Championship 1 or their own Academy - with the last one being the most cost-effective way of building a sports business.