apologies - id forgotten they were in SL then.
however, with the targeting of Welsh players, we have certainly been widening the net outside of the usual areas. Its not as tho these lads were being heavily tipped as potential candidates, or were on the radars of lots of other SL outfits, and being products of Crusaders academy is hardly the same as coming from Leeds, Wire or Saints.
the Club has deliberately decided to invest in the untapped potential of the Welsh players, and have mostly taken then on potential as opposed to proven performances.this is also shown by the link with SW Scorpions.

Whats up with Lauaki?

Lauaki and shaun wane have had words in pre

He's been out injured all season so far (think it's his back IIRC). He's not a big loss for us anyway though going off last season's form. I'm not sure if he would be better at second row where he has smaller men to run at, but then again he does seem quite flat footed in defence too which could be exploited

Not injured. Think Shawshank is about right.

Sort of, he was included in the Warrington game in pre-season, went out on the pitch at half time to do a warm up with the physio and was visibly struggling with what I think was a hamstring injury.

Would anyone here want Chris Ashton back? After this year's Six Nations-and especially yesterday- I can't believe he has an international future in Rugby Union any more

Correct

Union people are having a go at Ashton as he's not scoring tries for England.
He's a wingman so how many passes is he getting?
I don't know why they are having a go anyway. Union is about kicking penalties if you want to win a game. Tries are a luxury in the 15 man code. The two tries Wales got in the 6N match were luxuries, it was the number of penalties kicked that made the difference.
Would I have him back, yes!
We are thin on the ground re backs and as long as they wouldn't play him full back I'd be ok with him returning. Not that he ever will though!

I think the criticism is less to do with Ashton's lack of try scoring and more to do with chronic defensive problems and ineffectual all round contribution at the moment. I think he would possibly be up for a return to RL in principle but I'm not sure anyone could afford or justify trying to afford his current package

You mean the same problems that he had years ago when in Rugby League. I see absolutely no improvement in Ashton and he is just the good support player that he always was. Apart from this though he has very little to his game and is fairly average/poor in all of the other areas and I dont think any of the top RL teams would be interested in him.

Correct. I've heard that he'd be up for a return if the money was right, but the money will never be right because in League they wouldn't be prepared to equal what he's getting in Union, and that's before you even consider that, in performance terms, he'd probably be a long way behind what's expected in SL.

It doesn't surprise me, however, that Ashton's attitude is starting to cause annoyance in Union. His attitude left a lot to be desired while he was at Wigan - to say the very least.

If there is any truth in Ashton wanting out of RU then it would be a good for dear old Dr. Koukash as his first signing. Would certainly get him a few headlines in the nationals that he so craves!

Ashton would be a fool to return to League. In League his weaknesses would be further exposed, better to stay in Union.

Some good news on the way [new player]