Saints have got
Tony Puletua, Sia Solioa, Francis Meli, Josh Perry & Chris Flannery

Next year we add Anthony Laffranchi and Lance Hohaia.

Still? He played for England at junior levels!

I love how Wire fans are so obsessed with that one

One question would you class Jack Reed as an overseas palyer if he came to a Superleague club? The reasson I ask is although he was born in England he moved to Aus at just 2 years old and so has spent the vast majority of his life there. Whereas Hansen moved here as a kid and went through high school here and has spent more than half of his life in the UK.

As the OP pointed out.... its not a quota fiddling finger pointing exercise..... it was simply a number of overseas born players.

I'm pretty sure he was born overseas.

He's also played for NZ at senior level, not an obsession, just a fact.

Do we have any stats as to how many overseas players were in Superleague last year, compared to, say, 1998?

and samoa

and the USA

you might aswell get them all in

Bulls 2011: Kearney, L'Estrange, Jeffries, Herbert, Ah Van, Royston = 6

Bulls 2012: Kearney, L'Estrange, Jeffries, Lulia, Purtill, Sammut, Manuokafoa = 7


I'm not including Elima (both years), since this issue is really about antipodeans not genuine Europeans, and in any case he has played 8 of the last 11 seasons in England. If you include Elima you might as well also include returnees from Union.

Note that Jeffries is now a British Citizen, FWIW.

I dont have much of a gripe either way, Yes it would be nice to have all local lads in the team & all clubs should aim for that. But we all like to see the top stars from down under play in our league just look at the intrest in Wille Mason at our club despite the fact that it was an ill thought out disaster. Also look at the Joel Tomkins move to union if thats how its going to go then who can blame clubs from picking up already trained players?

Of note so far.

Hull KR have the most and their chairman is moaning about the new cap increases based upon producing players for England teams - some might say perhaps linked?

The comparison should be 2012 squad vs 2009 squad (the first season of the last franchise period).

The Crusaders collapse will distort things somewhat, but I think the RFL made the right decision there.

There are also a number of players granted special dispensation as they were signed pre-2008(?). Willie Manu at Hull for example.

Some of the players granted dispensation will have retired by the next franchise period, and the total number will once again fall.

It's heading in the right direction. Don't forget we also have the non-fed rule, which helps counteract the players on EU/Kolpak passports.

As someone has already posted but just to reinforce it again:

Cas 2011: Ryan McGoldrick, Rangi Chase, Dean Widders, Nick Youngquest, Willie Isa.
Cas 2012: Ryan McGoldrick, Rangi Chase, Nick Youngquest, Grant Millington.