Once again, Hall is not a full back. He's played there when we had absolutely no other player to step in, but he is not a full back. Phelps is a full back. It's still a crap argument. Particularly as Phelps was only required when we had to sack the young British player who previously held that position.

Yes and No.

Harlequins Rugby League have never had any dispensation on players of overseas origin.....and I believe have the joint least number of overseas players on their books this year along with Huddersfield.

London RL, also known as the Broncos were given dispensation because they were to all extensive purposes a new team. The were permitted a number of overseas players (I believe it was 13 to start with) on the condition that they reduce this number to the same as everyone else by 2002. This they did and we were pretty much playing on a level field from 2003 onwards......not bad really for a club that was only 15 years old at the time SL started (as I alluded to above, it was actually pretty much a brand spanking new club) and 22yrs old by the time their quota rules were the same as the rest of the league.

Now, you also mentioned Catalans and Crusaders. Whilst there is a rich herritage of RL in south west France, this was pretty much destroyed during the 2nd world war. As a result, they are defined as an expansion club....as are the cottage burners in wrexham. Catalans Dragons Joined SL in 2006.....this is their 10th year as a club. Crusaders are in their 3rd year in SL and are, I believe, 8yrs old this year.

Hull Kingston Rovers are 129 years old this year........they are situated in an area that is rumoured to be a Rugby League Heartland, yet feel the need to stretch their overseas quota to bursting point, even having to make one player a tea boy to make room for a marquee player supposed to boost your average gates to break even level finance and help you kick on from your commendable showing in the previous seasons of SL rugby.

Now....I don't know about you, but using the massive dispensation given to teams designed to grow the game in new areas (or rebuild it in one desimated by the Nazis) to justify the years of neglect of any form of club culture of development is a tad crass.

I have no problem with your ability to stretch the quota to busrting point...what I do have a problem with lame finger pointing excuses like "they did it first"......your club is 3 times the age of the combined total of the expansion clubs...don't use them to explain your own clubs shortcomings.

Lastly...and this is quite important too. It has never been proven beyond doubt that SKY demanded a London Franchise as part of the original SL deal, but it would be a very odd decision to have "fastracked" us as roofs puts it if they Hadn't...therefore, we got our original dispensation as a direct result of RL getting a cash injection that pretty much rescued it as a sport. Without us and probably without the Welsh and dirty French, your club would still be playing games with amateur/semi-pro players in front of a few hundred fans in mid winter whilst Wigan continued to win every trophy going apaert from the occasional season when another club nearly bankrupted themselves trying to play catch up .....but hey, apparently us cockneys bring nothing to the game

Ok pretty good points there but I wasn't saying "they did it first" it was more a point that it should be one rule book for everyone reguardless. If you are giving one team dispensation then you can't go and deny it to another club.

I have never begrudged any expansion club having the chance to play in the SL, I only ever have issues with them being treated differently to anyone else, not that his is the clubs fault more to do with those running the sport.

Just because we are 129 years old doesn't mean we should have a brilliant youth set up. Just over 10yrs ago we were crippled as a club, minutes away from going bust. In todays society we'd have probably just gone bust and started again but instead we fought hard for our club, the fans raised cash to pay players, sign players and make HKR competative again. Then a fan who self made his millions put his money where his mouth was and turned HKR from minnows to competitors but during that spell we had to sacrifice the development of youngsters in the area mainly due to anyone of them that was any good went to FC and the rest were getting hammered every week anyway so a pointless exercise.

Players like Jon Wilkin, Jamie Bovill and Chris Charles all came through our structures and although Bovill never made the big time his potential was there and should have been nurtured but due to our limited resources we couldn't do that for him like Saints and Salford did for the other two.

Taking all this into account the club may well be 129yrs old but our youth structures are in their infancy at around 5yrs old, with the time, effort, money and facilities a Super League club can bring to a thriving area of RL like Hull we should be seeing more youngsters coming through our structures within another 5yrs as stated by Neil Hudgell.

Newsflash London RL went to the wall in 2005...we weren't minutes from it, It HAPPENED....so I trump your 10yrs with our 6yrs.....as a result of this, we cut our cloth accordingly, pray every night that David Hughes stays healthy and have put up with the laughter as we finished 7th, 9th, 9th, 11th & 13th..........I would add that a fair amount of this laughter was coming from East Hull Fans having a pop at us being fastracked, not deserving of a place in SL and bringing nothing to the game.
Hey..I am a realist.....we will do well to make the 8 this year, we are no doubt punching above our weight and will slip down the table gradually, but we have done it as the RFL laid out they wanted all clubs to do it. With a squad of English players and an academy and under age set up that is churning out players.........not bad for a club that didn't exist 6 years ago.

Our only failings is in our fan numbers....we are reminded of it constantly, but I would still rate us as one of the first 6 names on the SL selection sheet for another 3 years at least.

So you compare a SL club going bust after it has spent almost 9yrs in the top flight beforehand, only went bust to clear its massive debts that it incurred because it had to pay players higher wages than anyone else just to attract them to the club, to one that had never tasted the SL life, had part time players who would often have to miss games due to work commitments, playing through the winter with no real income other than game day?

What a draw HKR must have been compared with a club the SL and RFL would never kick out of the top league. Do your city and surrounding area have any other League options? The Skolars are relatively new to the sport so can't really say them which means ALL the good players from your area will come to Quins, as in Hull all the best talent went to Hull FC because they were where all dreams were made (Horne, Cooke, Yeaman all made debut at a young age).

I don't think we need to play top trumps with who's had it harder, I understand the London based SL outfit has had to struggle through but with Branson, Lennigan and all the help the RFL has given you, you cannot say you haven't had the time and money to create a good youth structure before or after you went bust. Compare that to the words coming out of Eddies mouth on Sky when we got promoted about that the SL wasn't really designed for two clubs from the same city and the massive names of McNichol and Lilley who had to run the club with hardly two pieces of brass to rub together.

For HKR to improve their ground, not have to rely on speedway and dog racing to pay the bills, have a first team that could challenge the top teams in the game while also being able to fund a youth structure that would give the youth in and around the city the best coaching and facilities we had to get promotion by any means necessarry and do it before the licencing came in as we sure wouldn't have got one pre-2005. By not entering certain youth teams and having those costs we were able to gain success with a long term view to give better service to the youth of Hull and East Riding (even Scotland and other areas of the nation).

Not only now do the youth of this City have the choice of two SL sides but also the pick of the best facilities and coaches that can enhance their chances to become the new Richard Horne, Kris Welham or Paul Cooke (playing ability that is!!).

I don't understand peoples fixation. England are never going to beat Australia again and looking at the Kiwis coming through in the NRL are unlikely to better them any time soon. Face facts RL in England has 10% of the funding and 10% of the profile of Australian RL and ARL doesn't have a main competitor in its main cities to compete with. You can fill every SL club in England with 25 English players and it won;t make one jot to the WC or quad nations outcomes, imo.

All what help?
We're not the ones moving players off and on roster at will...we arent the ones with twice the number intended of overseas players. Dont talk about Help from the RFL.......we've had little if any.
Planted in London, given the same money as everyone else and told to get on with it......hardly helpful if you ask me and as for attracting players...I rent my 1 bedroom flat out in Brentford....hardly park lane, but I get over a grand a month for it....I suspect I'd get considerably more in East Hull....but hey, we did it on the same cash as everyone else got.....hardly helping us.

Without demands from Sky I highly doubt there would be a club from the capital playing in the top flight. I agree your club brought a lot to the table for other SL clubs but if you seriously think the RFL haven't let you off through the years then those blinkers need taking off.

One of the richest men in the world owned your club yet you make a point about only getting the same money as everyone else? There is a train service that takes under 3hrs from Hull to Kings Cross at pretty reasonable prices if you buy early enough, maybe try renting a 1 bedroom flat up here for £70 a week and use what you save getting to and from London for work?!

"We're not the ones moving players off and on roster at will" so we have done it (not in its entirity yet either) ONCE and that is "at will"??

Having double the number intended yet still not broken any rules. How many qualify for the World Cup for other countries? Newton - USA, Vella - Malta, Lovegrove - England, Fisher - Scotland, Mason - Tonga. And if all works out for him Galea - Malta. We are not only helping the English national side but also the world of Rugby League, we have seen the bigger picture, it is not just about England but about having countries for England to compete against!!!!! We are not selfish and just think of our own, multi-cultural club us!!!

What has Newton qualifying for the USA, Vella Malta, Fisher Scotland, Mason Tonga, and Galea Malta got to do with HKA? They Qualify for these nations anyway, moving to HKA hasnt affected it one bit. Even if they were all still in Australia they would still qualify, hell Masons already represented Tonga.

You need to lighten up and take certain points of peoples posts in the context they were written.

At a best guess TA knows as much as he actually says he does and is very very bitter at Mason choosing Rovers over Leeds so is venting his spline at our fans. Either that or he hates the fact that teams like Rovers can now sign the likes of the Galeas, Dobsons and Masons instead of yesteryear where we had to rely on them releasing the likes of Murrell (who is a young Brit we gave a chance instead of releasing).
I could however be Reading him all wrong and breaking/bending some forum rule that he can site me on!!!!

Leeds were never in for Mason, we have nowhere near the SC space for him. Nor the quota space but then again, neither did HKA so thats not really important.

KWALITY

I think you'll fjnd we do.