Looks like we beat Salford for his signature. Says it all really!

Sean Long seemed to grasp when and how to pass to Lauaki at the right time.....I personally think we haven't seen the best of him as a 2nd row since Long has been out all the time.

Lauaki could go well for you, I just think he needs a coaching team who truly believe in him. Think Agar and Co told him to curb his aggression and since then he seems to slow up on impact when played at prop.

Plus he will be around a winning mentality culture and with new attacking structures to learn and be a part of, you could see him do alright.

Let's hope we get a shock and Manu turns up instead.

lets hope we get a shock and sign someone in a position we actually need.

Did Carmont get everyone excited when we signed him? Did Leuluai? Did Coley?

All 3 of the players above were not exactly international class players when we signed them.

Give Lauaki a chance. He has been in a poor team under a poor coach at Hull. He is probably unfit and looked after poorly and playing under poor systems.

He has some very, very raw talent with ball in hand, he is very aggresive which is exactly what we lack at times. Let Bitcon get him fit and bulked up and let him train with our team and give him a chance.

Ok, he doesn't exactly get me excited but I trust that Wane probably sees something in him. He has a good judgement on players from what I can see. Look at his record working in our youth system.

Look what our coaching staff have done with Mossop. He had a little bit of raw talent and they have turned him into our best prop and one of our top tacklers. Lauaki has super league experience and with the guidance of our coaching staff I think he could be useful. I say give him a chance if he signs.

Finally despite our very talented backrow, probably the best in super league in terms of depth... they are actually all quite similar players. Only Farrell and Hock offer us something slightly different IMO. Most of our SR are workers but none are actually devastating runners. Only Hock has that ability and Farrell has quick feet.

I will keep an open mind, but i am concerned at using a quota spot for what no body can deny is a bit of a risky signing.

He isn't a quota player, he has an eligable kolpack passport.

Does he not still count as overseas trained though - you can only have 5 overseas trained/overseas quota players in total can't you?

Yes so basically we are using one of these very valuable spots attempting to polish a turd.

Don't think so, apparently he is non-fed, so wouldn't count towards your 5 quota spots. Anyway, that's my understanding - all these quota, kolpacks and non-fed's do get me turned around, so sorry if I have made an error.

Even if it is of benefit to us I hope that this is not the case, he needs to be classed as non federation trained.

You have, sorry.

Forget the "overseas quota", that no longer exists as a category.

You have federation trained, which is basically anyone, irrespective of nationality, who has come through any GB club's academy (or French in the case of Catalan), or non-fed trained, which is anyone, regardless of nationality, who hasn't.

Passports and so forth are now irrelevant, except for players who were signed before the new regs came into force (Carmont & Richards, for example).

A club is only allowed 5 non-fed players, ours are Finch, Lima, Hoffman, Roberts and now Cross.

There is a further requirement that 8 of the fed-trained players have to have come through the academy system of the club they're playing for.

so let me get this right.

Wigan have not signed Lauaki.....great.

Quote: Geoff "You have, sorry..'" Hmm, now I'm really lost. Have a look at this, viewtopic.php?f=34&t=413031, at the bottom were it talks about our 2012 overseas players and specifically the note about kolpack passports. Is this wrong then? Freaking confusing all this stuff if you ask me.

Quote: Geoff "You have, sorry..'" Hmm, now I'm really lost. Have a look at this, viewtopic.php?f=34&t=413031, at the bottom were it talks about our 2012 overseas players and specifically the note about kolpack passports. Is this wrong then? Freaking confusing all this stuff if you ask me.

i dont know why we would even consider this guy ! all he wants to do is start a brawl with who ever has the ball hes an idiot