Martin, Mellars, Witt, Sammutt, O'Hara, Withers, Bryant, Chan, Peek, Schifcofske, Hanbury, Frankenstein

(12 Foreigners at the Cru for the moment)

White, Kear, Dudson, Flower, Turkey & Murphy

(6 Welsh Born lads currently in the squad)

disgrace, kick 'em out!

Is it easier to convert an amateur RU player into a pro RL player, than "produce" a pro RL player from an amateur RL player then?

Also Gareth Thomas and Jordan James (dont know where they were born but they are Welsh)
Crusaders also have a Welsh head coach. How many Super League clubs have a British Coach? Not many

As long as SL Chairmen and coaches put club interests before those of the national team or the game as a whole, then despite rulings and caps on the number of overseas players any club can have, they will always have the maximum they are allowed. When Maguire was appointed coach at Wigan he will have been briefed to make them the most successful club in the league. To maintain last year's position he has signed three top Aussies in Finch, Hoffman and Adam Blair? You cannot blame him. But if the national teams needs were considered we would be developing more of our own talent and relying less on imported talent. Cricket have got it right according to Shane Warne. A vibrant County Competition with promotion and relegation, which exposes England's youngsters to top flight experience in the top division, which is then called upon by the country as and when it is needed. I know cricket has its own problems (and imported players) but it does seem to be getting the needs of the Counties (clubs) balanced with those of the national team at the moment. Let's hope our game can do the same.

My bad, 7 welsh born... Gareth Thomas is Welsh. Jordan James (albeit proudly welsh) is Bristol born

Hull KR have a much bigger talent pool to call on, they have one of the strongest amateur set ups in the country on their doorstep. Crusaders are part of the plan for building this in Wales. Hull KR have a ready made pool of players to pick from, Crusaders dont.
For them to be going into an SL season with a similar amount of overseas players as Crusaders is pretty pathetic.

This sport outside SL, has little to do with the poor youth development and lack of commitment to young british players by Hull KR.

Why is it any different to 'convert' a player than 'produce' a player? Crusaders cant take responsibility for the lack of progress over the last hundred years in Welsh Amateur Rugby League, so they are getting players where they can find them, this is a good thing.

If young Welsh players are coming through and they are good enough, then who cares whether they are converted union players or lifelong RL players, its a completely pointless distinction which you are only using to mitigate the relative success in this area by crusaders and a relative failure by other clubs.

Heartland clubs can also convert players, see Rory Kettlewell at Leeds as an example. In fact it is something Heartland clubs should be doing, if there is an RU player out there who can add to RL, bring him in, and well done to Crusaders for doing this whilst heartland clubs with all their inherent advantages have chosen to ignore british youth and bring over average antipodeans.

Did you miss the four Aussies which left the club too? Hell you didn't even manage to name the correct players that have joined Wigan.

I don't have a problem with export players, tell me if the Crusaders or Robbins win either the Challenge Cup or Super League would their supporters actually give a stuff where the players come from

Substitute Jeff Lima for Adam Blair. I wasn't having a go at Wigan, as I said in my post, you cannot blame Maguire for doing the job he was appointed to do. If Wigan win the GF again next year he will be vindicated. My point is simply that whilst the needs of the national game come second to the needs of the clubs, quality import players will be found at every club and this will restrict the number of British players gaining experience at the highest level. The official Wigan website has on its squad page, possibly seven import players - Carmont, Leuluai, Lima, Hoffman, Finch, Roberts and Richards - I'm sure you will correct me if I have mistakenly labelled them 'imports' or if they have already left the club. My point is that if our SL champions may be fielding import players which represent up to half of their starting thirteen, this is disappointing for our national team. This is not an anti-Wigan point, other clubs will be doing exactly the same. Wigan is arguably the greatest hot-bed of rugby league in the country and has quite possibly produced more internationals for Great Britain than any other area. This is why I worry for our national team when a great club like Wigan decides, for whatever reason, to have so many imports on its books rather than use more local players. The same can be said of Saints, Leeds, etc, but I thought that using our champions to make the point would give it more credibility.

Born and raised in Oldham , if you are going to post things , try ' wiki ' first

The ' Crusaders ' , Welsh/Wrexham or otherwise haven't produced anything yet , there only achievement is to complete a season of SL matches

HKR will produce players shortly , as you well know