Following on from the thread about players we didn't expect to sign for us what about those players who nearly signed for us? I remember back in the early 90s we were gazumped by Warrington who nicked Kelly Shelford from under our noses. We also missed out on Brendon "the original baby faced assassin" Tuuta who went to Fev. Both would've been super signings.

We made an offer to Jeremy Guscott in 92/93 apparently but he didn't fancy trading Bath for Bradford for some reason.

Around the mid 80s Graham Steadman had some trials with us but we didn't do a deal for some reason (must have been insanity) and he went to York, then Fev then Cas and tormented us frequently.

In the mid 80s we were linked with Wally Lewis but this was all a fiction spun by the Board to keep up interest in season tickets according an interview with Peter Fox after he left the club. I think the same applied to the reported interest in Argentinian rugby union flyhalf Hugo Porta - what a leftfield signing that would've been!

Further back the great Clive Sullivan apparently had trials with us and we didn't take it further

More recently I remember us nearly signing Barrie McDermott and he confirmed that in his book. Anyone remember any others?

We were in for Wakefields Gareth Ellis big time, even Had Jamie Langley as part of a swap deal, it all fell through and looked like he'd stay at Trinity.

Leeds had other ideas and swooped in for him

Remember this at the forum however it was Stuart Duffy, and he mentioned somebody else as well that we missed out on....

I think that was the intended result. IIRC, wasn't it Wigan who wanted Higham but Saints(?) wouldn't let him go to Wigan. They would let him go to us though, so we signed him and then 'let him go' to Wigan in return for Terry Newton. Basically it was a con between us and Wigan, though it was suggested that it was Saints fans who were most against letting him go to Wigan, and the Saints board actually connived in the deal too.

It's not like Micky had form for signing contracts then going back in it

Is anyone old enough to remember the time when we almost signed Hugo Porta. He was captain of the Argentinian RU team and at that time there were no crossover players. Big news back then.