I'll look forward to seeing them figures then. From what i have seen over there and heard from various people involved with the game whilst i was visiting, there is a huge interest.

the figures are on wikipedia for the kiwis. 22,000 registered players with 3,550 been adults and 18,450 been juniors. but i didnt take them as gospel so i contacted the communications officer at NZRL who was more than swift in her reply to back those figures up. this coming year she said they are looking at 25,000 total adults and children so lets say around 20,000 kids in NZ. i havent heard from barla yet but i know there are around 4000 + juniors from age 6 to 18 playing in the cas and distrcit leagues alone. add saints, wigan, leeds, cumbria, hull, bradhuddersfax and the london effort we will be hitting 25,000 kids easy and thats a conservative estimate. as i said we have a deeper pool to develop.

as soon as i hear back from barla i will post their figures. if they dont reply to my email i will ring.

I am not sure how losing the best players we have in SL will benefit the British game. In fact, judging by the fact that Roby was one of the better players on the tour, the challenge remains to bring up players who are of a similar standard. That aint going to happen if we become a feeder league to the NRL. The game needs to retain star talents and improve the systems we have.

Its absurd on just about every level to be thinking about wanting the likes of Graham, Roby, Tomkins etc to 'test themselves' down under. The only reasons I can think of are that our inferiority complex regressed to such a level that we need to see one or two players 'rip it up' down under to satisfy our self worth.

I know someone who is a very close family friend of roby and he said roby will never leave saints. He was asked by the aussie media would he go to NRL and he replied he wouldn't rule it out and the press jumped on it as if he was going.

Roby has everything to be put in the same bracket as KC.

Roby isn't anywhere near as good as KC.

On the NRL thing, it's not the coaching that is the problem, it's the playing stock. Your average NRL youngster looks like the Morris'. Big strapping lads who are the cream of the crop coming through. Over here your average SL youngster is a sparrow legged mong who isn't particularly fast, strong or clever. Just average.

Roby isn't as good as kc, thats why i put he has everything to be put in the same bracket as kc.

Roby would have been a massive hit in the NRL. Roby imo is one of the very few worldclass players we have in england.

The Council wouldn't be happy either

Great news for you guys and SL.

Quality player.

How much does an assistant coach get paid? It can't be that much.
I'm sure the RL could find enough to pay a couple of lads wages and accomodation per year and I can't see an NRL club complaining about getting an extra coach for free, can you?

Nope.

I also think it's a big failing of us bringing over Aussie coaches. Part of every head coaches brief should be improving the coaches underneath him, and I'm not sure that happens to any great extent.

Where I worked, part of every management positions goals and objectives were to identify, develop and help train their successor.

I'm not sure I've worded it quite right but I think you will understand.

I do, it's not like that at my place though lol.

Hopefully that's what we're seeing implemented at Wigan.

Maguire to Shaun Wane, Shaun Wane to (Potentially) Deacon etc etc.

Its been shown that the clubs that invest in young players are the ones that perrenially compete at the top of SL, surely its not rocket science to investigate it being the same with the coaching staff?

We are better at Gambling, drinking and looking after pets interests, Oh hang on