Well the whole "Club Wigan", sorry "Club GB" thing worked so well didn't it?

Andy Farrell was very successful in union. Despite only playing around a dozen games in 3 years, he was capped 8 times by England, has got into the club coaching set up, and his lad Owen is doing pretty well. No doubt he made quite a few quid as well !

Funnily enough.....wait until Tuesday.

There's no point in trying to outspend union on individual players, we have to accept it is a richer sport than League.

If union identify a target player (youngish, 22-23, currently paid £40 - £50K pa) and offer to double or triple his salary, it will be difficult (perhaps stupid) for the lad to turn it down.

Quite a few wigginers on C & W are blaming the salary cap for the Tomkins scenario, demanding it be scrapped, while conveniently forgetting -

1. When they were the 'big boys' of world rugby, they bought up players worldwide from both codes, by outspending those other clubs

2. This profligate spending led to them losing their ground.

I admit to some schadenfraude now a 'bigger boy' has come along, and is nicking their toys

There is work to do to keep players in the game - longer term contracts, some work around cap dispensation perhaps, but, as has been alluded to, I reckon the retaliation should be to target the junior and academy levels in union for recruitement. League is a proven fast track into top level club and international union, and we should use it. Once these kids play League, they well get a taste for it, and some may have no desire to return to the rucksnmauls.

Not all RU converts made the grade.

Aye, there was always the odd John Gallagher, Mark Brooke-Cowden and David Young knocking about.

Rob Ackerman?

wilkinson of 5 years ago might have been a option but would probably be too old to change his game

dont harlequins gather players from both codes and teach them the basics then decide which code they are suited to?
comparing union to league is as pointless as comparing it to american football just because the balls are similar
90% of the game requires different skills and attributes but that doesnt mean they cant learn from each other
union rarely seems to use a bullet pass { the pass to ashton in the eng vs scot game was more like a basketball throw] while union kickers seem more accurate at goal kicking

I'll name that tune in one.....

Quote: Richie "Funnily enough.....wait until Tuesday.'" www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/23 ... mpionships Hopefully this will mean union converts (or any other sport) we develop into decent RL players won't be faced with having to either relocate, or a four hour round trip, if their to train with a pro RL club. Despite them currently being faced by that, we've come up with 11 (5 Super League) players in pro academies in four years....how much could we expand our pro playing basis by after this kind of geographical expansion?

Quote: Richie "Funnily enough.....wait until Tuesday.'" www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/23 ... mpionships Hopefully this will mean union converts (or any other sport) we develop into decent RL players won't be faced with having to either relocate, or a four hour round trip, if their to train with a pro RL club. Despite them currently being faced by that, we've come up with 11 (5 Super League) players in pro academies in four years....how much could we expand our pro playing basis by after this kind of geographical expansion?

How realistic are these plans Richie?

Are some of these clubs seriously going to be able to support a semi-pro side in the next couple of years - do they have the commercial infrastructure to do so?

I know that Coventry & Hemel were approached along with Nottingham about being fast tracked in C1. We decided it was unsustainable in the medium & long term. Coventry were a lot more serious about it, so would be my favourites were it to come off. I think there were figures of thousands of pounds in grants being offered for a 2 or 3 year period to help the new clubs attract players & get some infrastructure in place.

Depends what a semi-pro side costs!
In Northampton, the proposal backed by the chairman of Northampton Town FC. With average crowds of 5000 in a 7000 capacity (all-seater) stadium, they're about the right size to compare to CC1 RL, and compare with local RU clubs Bedford and Rugby.

Arrangements are still TBA, but I'd expect something like:
The semi-pro team is made up of players from our Demons side or Knights junior setup, plus some better RU players, plus some imported northerners/australians. These play a full length summer season.
Our current adult team 1st team runs as is, in an RLC Premier, providing playing opportunity for those either not good enough or unwilling to invest the time to play pro, but is effectively a 2nd team to the pros.
Our current adult 2nd team runs as is, in an RLC regional.
Neither would be financially connected to the pro team, but will share facilities and players. Both would be playing the shortened summer season we have now.
Our junior setup runs as it is now, standalone finances but partnered with the pros. The U18s move from the current regional league to either the NYL or pro academy league, to get a full length season. Effectively, this provides the pro team with a ready made academy setup.

If that works, and other clubs do the same, and clubs invest in developing local players rather than shipping in experienced RL players from the north/australia, then it provides a route to pro RL for a whole load of players who didn't have easy access to it before.

You're right, in that I'm not sure it would be self sufficient. Coventry, I'd guess, would partner with the local RU club, and have the experience of a year in NL3 to work from. Their junior setup has picked up a lot over the last couple of years, and is now comparable to ours.