: Mon Feb 16, 2009 9:21 am  

the bloke is clearly insane, or trying to deflect criticism from his team of 9 foreign losers.

"Think of the publicity" he says. There are a lot easier ways and cost effective to get publicity than wasting money on 14 RU players.

Who are the 14 players who will leave international Rugby Union, and be good enough to enhance the international RL team. The only players likely to consider it will be those playing for Scotland, or those on the outskirts of the England/Wales squads - and why would we want those chumps.

He also failed to explain why they should be exempt from the salary cap, who would pay for it, and why existing RL players would be happy to see people coming in from another sport earning more than them - and it not counting on the cap.

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 9:51 am  

The english rugby union backs from the weekend would walk into the english rugby league team

As would the saxon backs

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 10:09 am  

Most probably true,

Maybe the professionalism of RU, the ease of which those in the back 5 can change codes, and the salary caps effect on lowering RL wages in comparison to rising RU wages has been one of the reasons we have failed to produce a world class back 5 player in the last 15 years

its worth noting, neither of the Eng/GB centres (who were far and away better than anyone else we have) were produced by the british RL system, and neither was one of our first choice wingers,

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:13 pm  

Catalancs wrote:

from a fax fan

Once, to save the club is a bit different to consistantly over the years, but hey, who cares.

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:21 pm  

Eurob0y wrote:

The english rugby union backs from the weekend would walk into the english rugby league team

As would the saxon backs

Rubbish. The English RU backs are nothing special in their own code let alone learning to play RL. Admittedly we have a shortage of world class backs, but so do they. They've got loads of generic wingers and centres out of moulds they attempted to copy from RL, but they lack finesse and true creativity, and pale in comparison to the likes of Ma'a Nonu or Joe Rokocoko.

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:22 pm  

Kelvin's Ferret wrote:

Rubbish. The English RU backs are nothing special in their own code let alone learning to play RL. Admittedly we have a shortage of world class backs, but so do they. They've got loads of generic wingers and centres out of moulds they attempted to copy from RL, but they lack finesse and true creativity, and pale in comparison to the likes of Ma'a Nonu or Joe Rokocoko.

but they are probably much better than Paul Wellens or Ade Gardner

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:31 pm  

Haighy wrote:

Once, to save the club is a bit different to consistantly over the years, but hey, who cares.

ah ok. so breaking the salary cap is ok as long as you only do it once?

consistently over the years? you really should have done some research before you spouted that petal.

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:40 pm  

Eurob0y wrote:

The english rugby union backs from the weekend would walk into the english rugby league team

As would the saxon backs

they are that good that 12 months ago Leslie Vainikolo was in front of them all.

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:42 pm  

SmokeyTA wrote:

but they are probably much better than Paul Wellens or Ade Gardner

and Sykes, Senior and Gleeson?

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:45 pm  

saints35 bulls0 wrote:

they are that good that 12 months ago Leslie Vainikolo was in front of them all.

and 13 months ago, LV was still better than every british winger in SL