If this is true, he is an exceptional player and should be signed instantly. He plays loose forward for the West Tigers. His cardio is off the charts, a tacking machine with huge metres, an 80 minute player none the less. Just what we need with loosing Jammer to the DOGS. Big fan of this guy (watched him play at Mt.Smart a few times) and there is talk that he could be willing to play for England in Four Nations. He was asked in an interview by Beau Ryan (Tigers teammate) on the Footy show and confirmed as much.

He has British passport so no quota, get him signed ASAP if available Eammon and Royce.

A British Passport is irrelevant when it comes to federation status. We are maxed out on non-federation trained players and can't have any more. We won't be signing anyone else from the NRL, regardless of their passport.

If he has a relative who is British though, I can't see how it can be irrelevant.

I wasn't sure about that factor too. And I read somewhere that the non-federation trained status doesn't apply to holders of a British passport, just overseas? Could be wrong for all I know, non-fed and quota is a minefield.

What if Meli, Puletua and Soliola became fully registered and vaccinated scousers?

There isn't enough vaccine.

A British passport would get him exemption from the overseas quota. He would still, however, be on the non-federation list, which is based on where you were [itrained[/i; even Gareth Widdop would be counted as a non-fed player. Our non-fed list is full. The only overseas players who don't count on the non-fed list are those who have already been playing in SL since the start of 2008. The upshot: we won't be signing anyone else from the NRL.

One player we not getting now is Griffin Leeds have outbid us and with Pryce off to France that means 3 big players out and only 2 in and we might lose Flannery yet

That rule needs to be changed then. Didn't Widdop only go over there at 16?

The story of the last 5 years at Saints.

In a few years we will be able to claim tax credits for the squad, which we'll be able to net off the salary cap spend, such will be the lack of experienced players.

Quoting from [url=http://www.therfl.co.uk/news/article/20745an article on the RFL website[/url, "In simplified terms, a ‘Non Federation Trained’ player is one who was not playing for a club within the Rugby League European Federation between age 16-21." So Widdop would be non-fed.

We desperately needed a system that wasn't based on nationality. When the system is based on what passport a player holds then under modern EU law it becomes so flexible as to be almost meaningless, hence the incessant stream of Kolpak stiffs in the early 2000s. The situation with Widdop is an unfortunate quirk of an overall much better system.