It would be great to see USA rugby league being more populated so other people can get involved!

Headhunter

You really are quite a patronising man/woman. Being of such evident high intellect and perception, I am sure you have already figured this out and you don't need me to tell you.

I would be grateful if you could enlarge on your assessment that the work being done in Canada is going "just fine at the moment". I am intrigued to know what information you base that assessment on. Are you involved in Canadian rugby league at all? What do you particularly admire about what we are doing? I mean lets get into specifics here and not nice sounding airy-fairy theory. And a question for you - exactly how many non-rugby union indigenous players are currently playing league here in Ontario?

RU of course gets its players from a well-established school, club and provincial set-up that has been here for many years. Of course it would be great if rugby league in Canada did not have to go down the rugby union convert route but unfortunately there does not seem to be another option, unless, O great one, you can educate me and the rest of the folks on the ground here.

In terms of enticing rugby union players with the prospect of playing in the World Cup, perhaps the phrase "encourage" might be a more appropriate one, or incentivise. Of course, the last thing we want is mercenaries, this is simply a tool to accelerate the development process. It would also make marketing the game here a lot easier by linking the domestic and national game to the international stage. But, not being part of World Cup qualifying comp is not going to be the end of the world, it would have been nice to have though. 2017 will come around and we will see what position we are in then.

To be honest I don't see much philosphical difference between Canada filling its ranks with union converts and Crusaders populating half the team or more with Antipodeans - both are simply a means to an end, aren't they?

I am not of course coming on here and moaning about the fact that expansion is difficult (besides I am not really sure expansion is the right term for something starting from scratch - its really more applicable to geographical spread in an existing set-up, Wales being a good example). I am though moaning about people like you who make simple generalisations from thousand of miles away and in effect belittle the effort we are putting in here to get league off the ground by any means possible.

Headhunter, I am flattered that you've spent the last week researching the state of the Canadian game to answer the above questions, but I really am ready for your answers now...

I cannot see any arrogance in anything I have said. I was merely pointing out your penchant for commenting on matters you know very little about. As for confrontational...I found your tone to be patronising which elicited such a response.

We know have four teams in Ontario and I am not sure that will bear the description of a full league yet, particularly as far as I know we have not managed to start a game with the full complement of players on either side!

In terms of how many non union and/or non expats are currently playing in Ontario - the answer is 2 or 3. It is quite obvious to me that we have to continue to mainly look to union to provide players in the short to medium term simply to function in any meaningful way.