One word.....Appalling.

Obviously not.

Start a thread then!

Answer the questions raised - give yourself a chance.

This was back on page 10. I wonder if you thought you should take your own advice? Or did you ignore it because it was so lame? Let's see

Why have you not started a thread then??

If you so want a thread on it...start one. I am likely to contribute. Moreso if they have around 10 non UK players on their books.

I've answered many qs. The fact that you can't undertand them or don't like them is your problem, not mine

Back to topic.

Perhaps the RFL should tighten rules re overseas players. The 50% NRL rule (down from 75% sadly) should be the benchmark. That way young british players will get a fair crack. Though i suppose the RFL expected a relegation free SL would encourage less use of reserve grade NRL guys.

we are supposed to be improving, we are supposed to be making efforts to catch up to the NRL, you dont do that by bringing in players not good enough,

as for Poching- have we not improved are we not a more professional game than 10 years ago? its 14 years since the game went fully pro not 4 we should demand more of our clubs now than 4 years in to professionalism, and besides, the first 5 or so years of SL were an embarrassment from an administration point of view and saw more money wasted that at any other time in the game,

also he has pretty much the same junior pedigree, Poching was a junior Kiwi and had played for Brisbane, Auckland, NQC and Hunter, and was brought over by a semi pro second division outfit, not a franchised SL side

and again, your desperation to hide behind the 'who knows how good he is yet' argument still fails to address the point, that bringing over 1 overseas player and taking a punt on him, is different to bringing over 11 and building a team around them



hmm, did i say he was a decent player or a decent prospect? think on about what prospect means,


i would say his natural position will be british style second rower or and Aussie style loose forward

Make your mind up.....thought this thread was about the RFL allowing this through.....not about the number of overseas players???

"The RFl should stick to their criteria and not allow Winterstein in. "

"This is not anti wakey. For eg I have no objection to Stosic being given the okay."

i dont question it, unless things change i dont think they are a sustainable SL entity,

they may be able to rely on antipodeans and other SL clubs right now but that wont last forever, probably not even another 10 years



suppose if Leeds, Saints, Bradford, Hull, wigan et al decided to take the same approach, suppose they all said sod the rest of em, we are looking after number one,

suppose Paul Caddick, Ian Lenegan, Peter Hood, Kath Hetherington, Eammon McMannus got together and said, Why on earth should we continue to spend thousands of pounds on youth development systems, only to lose players to teams that havent because of the SC,

Suppose they decided it would be cheaper and easier to simply bring over ready made players from Australia like Wakefield do, so they stop bringing youth through which means other clubs cant pick up the scraps anymore, so they have to bring even more overseas players in, and because there are so many to fit under the cap, the quality of those brought in falls, the quality of the league falls, it loses touch with its market, no longer provides a pathway for amateurs, and we simply become a 2nd tier of the NRL

who wants to watch 2nd tier rugby, well as the championship proves, not many people, so some clubs go to the wall, those that dont slash their player budgets, which means an even worse quality of player is brought in and we then have a league full of frank Wintersteins, and again, nobody wants to watch that so everything spirals until the game dies

improvement compared to what?

Compared to pervious GB teams with players not coached by them you clot.

like which ones?

the one which got stuffed in the trinations final at elland road?

the one which lost all three tests to the Kangaroos second string?

or the ones of the early to mid nineties, when we had very few imports as a comparison and plenty of union players

btw, when was the last british coach to coach a GB/England side to a 3-0 series whitewash?