this is a very passionate argument so as a neutral observer could i throw in that the question about Kallum Watkins was mentioned last night on Radio Manchester .

Francis Cummins from Leeds said the lad is a wonderful prospect and Leeds clearly had enough confidence in him to start him last week and that by the way isnt the first time he's started- Shaun Mcrae did explain that a number of clubs wanted Kallum and it was simply down to him accepting what he thought was best for him - plain old freedom of choice

Very simple solution (?) Any player on the books of his hometown club doesn't count on the salary cap. Sorted

how do you define the boundaries of a service area? what would happen in Hull, for example? what about the Widnes/Warrington area? where does the Celtic area extend to? what about London? what about young Cumbrian players? do Catalan "get" the whole of France?

you have come up with a solution to a problem that doesnt really exist - and doesnt explain how it would stop some clubs and coaches choosing to field 9 out of 13 foreign players in their teams.

Am I missing something?
Is there a Rule that states You Can't play 9 Foreign Players ??????

How come this didn't seem to bother you when other clubs had has many if not more foreign players in their team?

Are you getting on your Moralistic High Horse as you want to see the standard of English Rugby improve? If so, thanks for that but I have another suggestion, stop picking the likes of Wilking/Gardner/Maureen etc for GB that may Help!

Please tell me how many of their own Local Backs Saints have brought through into their starting 1-7 in the last 5 years????

I'll tell you what!

Ask Wellens/Gidley/Long/Cayless/Graham Maybe Roby to sit out 1/2 or 3/4 of a season like some clubs have had to do in previous seasons ie Hull?Warrington/Ourselves etc and throw in 5/6 of tese youngsters for the next 15/20 weeks and lets see how Good they are playing with Gardner/Gilmour/Flannery/Wilkin & Hargreaves Class week in week out!

The truth is, Saints & Leeds have been able to promote some Youth into their set ups over the last couple of years because their clubs have had the stability and the success to enable them to do so.

If your concern is about bringing through players to play for GB then :-
When Wigan were making GF Appearances & CC Final Appearances regularly 88-95 - 98-2004 we brought Many,Many more through that were eligible for GB & England and many went on to have Good SL & International careers for England/GB.
In Your 10 Year period of dominance How many players Have Saints provided for GB That YOU Produced? I Can think of about 4 or 5 maybe???

If your concern is more about how many foreign players Wigan are playing each week then :-
Considering the Turmoil the club went through Late 2004/05/06 I don't think weve recovered too badly thank you.
What is it of any concern to you ?

I have said it before I will say it again, The Saints fans are becoming the total embodiment of everything they say they used to hate about Wiganers!
Know it all pompus kn0bs!

You don't know any better than us, you don't know more about rugby than us, You don't have better Morals regarding the future of British RL more than us.

Your team is Just winning more than us at the moment!

At some point this will change, Will you be right about everything then?

this is what leeds do every year! leave room incase we need to bring anyone in due to injuries or if some becomes avalable who fits the bill

so good on saints. but it does seem like they are in a position where if they have a few injuries the kids are in apossed to the kids been blooded and brought on a little at a time. but in at the deep end in a team like saints could see some young kids fast tracked into top players.

Ive had another Idea!

Why don't we cut away from all this crap about Kolpac/Federation/Club trained B0ll0x and just say You can only have 3 Non GB Eligible players in your squad from next season and You must have say 10 Players from Your own Academy in your 1st team 25 squad.

I'm up for that, anyone else?

Given 2 x years we'll be at the Top of the Pile (With leeds) again and then all the rest can go and think of ways to drag us back again like they had to 14 years ago!

And remember, we were a million miles better & closer to the Aussies than we are now!

And Wigan have done the same last couple of years. His point is?

They have taken a concious decision! How does he know that? Maybe their cost cutting? I remember Wigan doing a similar thing a few years back!

Certainly am.

Count me in

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Saints already have 18 players from the academy in the (30man) first team squad, and only 5 non-GB eligible players - so we release Flannery and Cayless and we are there already.

No Probs!

I take it you won't be going overseas then in the next 2/3 years to replace Cayless/KFC/LONG/Wellens/Gidley/Gilmour etc when they need replacing in the next couple of years then will you?

We will soon see How good you are then!

not sure what you are on about mate? i thought i had made myself perfectly clear or are you on about someone else?to be honest i dont get your point. hows the best backline in the league going for ya?

i thought there was, but clearly not.




it did, and it does - not just with Wigan



I do want the GB/England team to improve, I was in Australia in November embarrased by what was on display. Wilkin and Gardner contribute a lot more to the England team than any foreign player does.



bit of a tenuos question. do you want names of every back that has come through to play first team?

there will be at least one playing in the first team tonight, how many did Wigan have last week?


I'll tell you what!



last season we went through a large proportion of the early season half our pack missing. Fozzard, Cayless and Fa'asavalu all spent a long time sat on the sidelines, along with Sculthorpe and Bennett.



stability brought about by what? long term thinking and investing in academy systems for one.