What news? What's happened to Crusaders?

Well I didn't see that one coming! Pleased for Wakefield, but they have to fulfil their promises pretty quickly I would imagine. The RFL reserve the right to revoke a licence if they don't so I assume that means they aren't 'safe' for 3 years.

The Crusaders were a bit of joke in all honesty. Poor crowds and struggling to balance the books it would seem. I'd like to see a genuine presence in Wales but fast tracking it in just didn't work. It will be interesting to see where they go from here.

2009 season....he signedfor crusaders and we got greg bird.
turned us down even with the steve menzies trying to persuade him to sign for us

Comparing Herbert and Sammut on sl website suggests theyd work well together. Herbert to create, sammut to threaten.

Sammuts defence looks okay (statistically) aswell

witt herbert would be more dangerous. herbert and sammut are not controlling halves...witt on the other hand is. witt herbert would be dangerous....

The way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised to see Wire pick up the entire Crusaders squad for the 2012 season

I still think Herbert can grow into that role. Herbert might not be a controller yet, but he's getting better and he does put players through gaps. He doesn't take the line on as much as Sammut.

I think we agree that either Witt or Sammut would both be an improvement.

Problem is we aren't going to see any combination including Herbert as he'd have to go to sign any of crusaders halves. Technically ah van could go to free the quota spot but then we have 5 halves (6 if you include southernwood) which is too many IMO.

Oh.

Sammut isn't quota but is non fed trained right? So we would still need a spot for him really.

I'd get rid of Herbie for either of Witt or Sammut though.

Yep, we already have BJ, Briggs and Gale signed up for next year. I would imagine that leaves probably 1 spot left if we include BK as cover for the halves too. Can't see us signing two more unless Briggs leaves, even then that would leave us with quite a bit of cash tied up on 2 positions.

Disregarding players now available I'd like to get back to the original decision. Widnes are in. It now transpires that Wakey meet all the criteria. Does that mean that if Crusaders had not fallen on their sword then we would now have 15 teams in SL

got it in one Ewwen. Difficult call for coach IMO. Not convinced by Gale at all in scrum half role. fine as a standoff. Think herberts got more potential as organiser although I prefer him at standoff. would happily lose herbert for either of witt/hanbury to partner gale/briggs at standoff. Whilst I think sammut is a more off the cuff player at standoff than herbert I'm not entirely convinced that a sammut/gale partnership is more balanced than a herbert/gale one. Sammut stands out in highlights for the off the cuff attacking stuff. I'm not sure he contributes as much in other areas though.

except it doesnt mean that at all. If they met all the criteria they would be a grade A club. They've just been judged to meet more of the criteria than halifax. If crusaders hadnt withdrawn their application then wakey may have still have been judged to be the 2nd weakest of the applicants and left out. RFL said repeatedly that we were sticking at 14 teams and only agitators from clubs under threat suggested a 15 team league.

Wrexham has been demolished by large pink bunnies. This has caused the Crusaders to live up to their name and fight back against the bunnies and head out to the bunnies home planet to protect humanity

From what 've heard Witt has a pretty complicated injury which has put clubs off him.