Good move. Farrell will rip it up in that division IMO. Ainscough needs the first team experience but isn;t going to get it here at the minute. And Davies is a victim of our abundance of front rowers atm, his time will come, he is a super player.

Kevin Penny still regularly trains with Warrington as Widnes only train in the evenings, presume these will be the same?

And why don't Widnes do an offer for Wigan Season ticket holders - I'm sure plenty would be interested in attending.

I think some people in this thread are underestimating the league a bit, we will still not be favourites by any margin but we're a club giving a chance to the stars of tomorrow and I hope that doesn't go unnoticed by the powers that be.

I was at a sports mans dinner at the back end of last year with Terry O Connor and Barry Mac.

From what I can rememeber Terry said he has tried to sign Ben Davies previously as he rates him that highly, but obviously we weren't going to let him go, so I suppose this is the best of both worlds for us and Widnes, they get a player they want (albeit on loan) and we get a player(s) back with match experience at a significantly higher level than they would be getting week in week out

He was also very complimentary about what IL was trying to do with our youth policy and promoting from within

Thankyou for these players.Just hope they play more for us this year so we can win some silverware.Hopefully we can keep a good bond with wigan and goodluck for the season.Maybe one day see you in superleague. Wigan are my second team and hope to see you in superleague.

Really mate?If you did not have a game i would love to see some of your wigan fans at stobart stadium.I am looking to go to a few wigan games aswell this year.

Any Wigan fans seen much of Farrell and Gerrard? Wondered who you thought was the better player at this time in each of their careers?

Farrell by a mile.
Gerrard is a great passer of a ball, but not quick enough for the backs and not big enough for the forwards.
Farrell is a superb back row forward, strong, fast and tackles well. If I was rating your three signings it would be 1 Farrell, 2 Davies and 3 Ainscough, that's how lucky you are.

Can anybody explain how dual contracts work?

Alex, my interpretation.
The dual registered player will in general train with both his Superleague and Championship clubs on an agreed percentage basis. e.g. (60% at Wigan 40% at Widnes)

The superleague Club can recall the player up to 48 hours before their game (that's when the squads have to be announced), but I =#FF0000think that this can only happen after the first month of the loan.

It's a win win situation really.
And the players cannot play for both teams in the Challenge Cup.

How its been explained to me in simple terms

The player trains with his main contracted club and if he is not selected in the squad for the next game he goes to the other club

How does it work financially?

Good deal, makes sense for the clubs and the players.

So what happens after that?

Dave

A dual reg player does not have to spend the first month at the new club as loan players do. He can be recalled week by week from day one.

Wigan want another club this side of the pennines in SL and these lads will strengthen Widnes. Wigan get their lads in a better standard league than U20s and Widnes are a better team to go for trophies which they could well need prior to the next round of licences.

Sorry, I didn't explain it well.
It's a season long dual registration
I believe that in the first month the players CANNOT be recalled, but after that they can up to 48 hours before the Superleage clubs match.
If Wigan then don't need the player for the next game, he returns to Widnes, but again may be recalled up to 48 hours prior to Wigan game.

I hope that clears it up a little.
It appears from Teds post above that my understanding of the initial one month perion may be wrong, apologies.

[urlhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_league/super_league/wigan/8500043.stm[/url

Link on BBC website - as IL says the players concerned, if they had stayed with Wigan, could end up not playing a competitive game until late March, another factor in this arrangement. Seems very sensible to me - especially for Farrell and Davis (perhaps he will learn a thing or two from Terry O'c).

good to see our feeder club is still supplying us with quality young players, if they have as much impact at widnes that ben kavannagh has had then this will be brilliant.

Thanks very much to Wigan for this and to your chairman for his kind words, all will be of benefit to Widnes massively.

Rogues, it's only the players that go on "Loan" that can't be recalled for the 1st month, after the initial 1st month they can be recalled with 48hrs notice.

Not sure how any of this works financially though< One for DaveO?

IFL, we need your assistance!

He said at the fans forum that with the Dual contract players they can be called back at anytime from the first day they are there where the loan players(Davies in this case) can't be recalled until the first 5,6 or 7 weeks have passed(he could remember exactly).

He says on the website that Ainscough and Farrell will spend the majority of their training time with Wigan each week. Maybe thats because Widnes aren't fulltime(i'm not sure on that).

Yeah Cullen stopped them training full time last year.

That must be it then.

They can do the added fitness work with Wigan through the week and then the ball work and tactical side of things with Rambling Cullen during the Widnes sessions.

Sounds a very good plan.

I reckon its better that they will be getting first team action and building experience instead of hanging around waiting for a game, they will train with our coaching staff anyway and two of them are available at a moments notice, can only be a good thing in my humble opinion, yeah like my opinion was ever humble