You've still got to pay him, though. Unless you can re-sign him cheap, I say let him go. With laffranchi coming in our 1st choice back row trio will be him, Sia and Wilkin and we know Royce likes to start a prop like Tony P or Clough at 13. With Magennis, Dixon and Ashurt all in reserve, I'd say it would be folly to match what Flanders could be getting elsewhere.

Royce has gone on record saying he'll be using Laffranchi as a prop, though. But on the limited resources I take your point. A lot will depend on how what we're paying Hohaia and Laffranchi relates to what we offered Eastmond and Graham.

True. If a quality back became available then I think the money would be better spent there. How many are available, though?

So are you suggesting we cannot possibly sign Waterhouse now? Rumours and news articles a plenty in Aus about him joining Saints still.

Not as far as I can see. The only way it would be possible would be if TP signed his first contract with us before the non-fed regulations came into force, but as he only joined us in 2009 I can't see that being the case. I must admit I don't know the exact cut off point, but I think it's the beginning of the '08 season (presumably TP signed for us midway through that season).

To be quiet honest I am happy with the pack we have now and there is no need to go overseas in that department. The backs is another matter mind and if a quality left centre became available I can see this could restrict us from signing him. However so far I am really happy with the signings for 2012 and its only slightly eased the pain of losing Kyle Eastmond and more importantly James Graham. I dont believe we should offer Chris Flannery a new contract because I believe there are better English Back Row Forwards that can become available. Flannery has done a job for us and thats about it really.

I thought Laffranchi was coming over on an Italian passport, if he is he won`t count on any quotas.

If he's an Italian citizen then it would be illegal to count him on any quotas I would think.

I think this amply demonstrates that....nobody actually knows. It's the most ludicrous set of 'rules' in any sport, surely.

Laffranchi doesn't count on the old style, nationality based quota. He does count on the new non-fed system, which is based not on your nationality but on where you learned your trade, and was brought in precisely to get round the problem of overseas players getting in on an EU or Kolpak passport.


It's as I've outlined above, trust me. It's hopelessly complicated at the moment, but only because the RFL have had to grant exemptions to a host of players at the outset in order to cover their backs legally. Once those exemptions run out it should work fine and be a straightforward case of 5 overseas trained players, and that's it.

So can we still sign waterhouse or hayne ?

Just a simple yes or no will do.

The answer is no

The orginal poster omitted Puletua from the quota list

If the current players are re-contracted the 5 in each group would be

Quota Non-Fed
Puletua Puletua
Soliola Soliola
Perry Perry
Hoihia Hoihia
Flannery Laffranchi


Meli is Kolpak and Federation Trained (dispensated)

If Flannery wasn't re-contracted a Quota could be brought in but he would need to be a Federation Trained player (likely with a dispensation like for instance Glenn Morrison). Any Kolpak player would also need to be Federation Trained (example Solomona)

Sorry the space between both columns has disappeared

So it looks more like saints was after either laffranchi or waterhouse and not both or waterhouse was a fall back if TP didn't sign.

Seems strange tho that saints said laffranchi wasn't counted as a overseas player.

If true that flannery is exempt and we can resign him then if we've got the cap space then I'd keep him.

St Pete

What they did say was that Laffranchi would not count on the Quota (overseas quota) as he was an Italian passport holder.

However he does count as a Non-Federated Trained player.

You are right that the mention of Waterhouse was dependant on Puletua not being resigned.