Looking at the Swinton board of Total RL, it transpires that 6 of our ex U20 squad have now signed with Swinton Lions for the season. These are Morrison, Mendeika, Burke, Shaw, Ormsby and Riley. Reading between the lines, it looks as though some or all these players had a 1yr contract, with a[i club option[/i of extending this for a further two years. Hence, their contract could be terminated with Warrington, allowing them to sign with Swinton. The information comes from the RFL offices in response to a query from a Swinton fan.

You have to laugh at the amateurish manner in which this 'partnership / youth changes' is being implemented. I strongly suspect the RFL initially washed it's hands of the proceedings when the SL chairmen voted to get rid of two age groups. But of course it now has to pick up the pieces of a poorly thought out change, which I strongly suspect was engineered by Hetherington who knew full well he would get agreement to the cuts because of the financial 'carrot'.

Anyway, Wire have hung on to their 'over-age' youngsters, and now have managed to find a way to ensure they get a match most weeks.

I would quite like to know if Wigan have got a problem giving their ex U20's a match each week, because it certainly doesn't look as though Leigh will be taking many, and south Wales is a long journey to make. Rogues ?

So what happens at the end of their contracts with Swinton? Do they have a contractual obligation to return? Or are we relying on 'gentlemans agreements'?

There is no contractual agreement to return to Wire, they can move on to another club after this year. They are no longer our players. However, if Wire wanted them, I would be surprised if they moved to another club. But of course, that is a risk that the club has now taken. If an Oz club took an interest.....

Would these players have been on full time contracts at Warrington?

It looks as though they were on full time contracts of one year, with the club having the option of keeping them for a further two, providing they continued to progress.

Apparently these arrangements have also backfired on Leeds. Kylie Leulie was dual registered at Hunslet & was hoping to play for them this week but the Border Agency have stepped in & said his visa won't allow it. This could affect all overseas players especially when returning from injury to get back to match fitness.

Could the said ex Wire players have signed pre-contract agreements with the consent of Swinton from let's say, the 2014 season onwards?

I don't know sufficient about the legal side to answer that one. Perhaps somebody else on the board might ?

I'm sure the lads just want to play rugby, but i bet they're not happy giving up full time contracts for not much money at swinton.
Have the links with wire been broke completely or could they be doing community work and maybe supplementing ther wages that way?

Just as importantly, what about the players that Swinton had on board for this year , are some of them now surplus to requirements ?

Iv'e not heard of them letting any players go yet, but the belief is, they only started the season with 16/17 players anyway so these kids just give them the squad depth they need

I imagine there will be clauses giving Warrington first refusal etc, no doubt we pay a chunk of their wages too. Swinton were reluctant to reveal any of this and there had been nothing to my knowledge from our club. What an utter farce.

The official Statement from RFL;
"The RFL has been informed by the UK Border Agency that under the terms of his visa, Kylie Leuluai of Leeds Rhinos is unable to play for Hunslet Hawks as a dual-registered player.

The RFL has recently lobbied the UKBA for a change to the rules which prevent players on Tier 2 visas playing for a second club on a short-term arrangement. This follows on from changes to the Super League Academy structure, which from 2013 is an exclusively under-19s competition, an arrangement that means open-age overseas Tier 2 visa players returning from injury cannot gain match fitness on short-term loans or dual registrations.

Dialogue with the UKBA continues but the UKBA have confirmed that until any change in circumstance is agreed, under existing provisions no player on a Tier 2 visa can be dual registered. "


Perhaps I could write a statement;

The RFl and SL chairman implemented exciting changes to the structure of SL Academies for 2013. We carefully avoided formalising any of these changes in a set of rules, prefering instead to make them up as we went along and to write ideas down on the back of a fag packet. Astonishingly we now find that there appear to be some minor flaws in the system, and one very big one; the refusal of some Championship sides to participate and the frustration of their fans is of course irrelevant (we get all our dosh from SKY), however we failed to consult the Border Agency on the rules regarding overseas players and in consequence Gary is unable to play Kylie Leulie at Hunslet.

Nice one Charlie ,is the fag packet now in the bin ?

I am not 'in the know', but lets hope some sensible changes are made for 2014 that use joined up thinking. This is just embarrassing at the moment.