So I presume that he's federation trained then?

He's Irish.

Hansens first International cap was for England.

Still too many.

The ones who were already here before they changed the rules still count as federation trained - i.e. Feca, Carmont & Bailey. The only 3 non-federation-trained (and also the only 3 on the overseas quota) are Roberts, Riddell & Phelps.

There's a good explanation of the quota/fed-trained rules by Ian Lenagan somewhere on the board, but I can't be bothered looking for it now...

I agree that we have too many over seas (forgetting all the clauses crap)

IMO only Roberts and Richards are worthy of their Quota spot. We need to start signing overseas players like these two instead of Mr Averages because lets be honest, we could do alot better than what we've got. Feka, Carmont, Bailey, Phelps, Leuluai and Riddells wages could get us at least 3 world class players from overseas- Fullback, Scrum Half and a Prop. And Carmont, Bailey and Riddells positions can be given to the wealth of talent we have in the reserves, or look into super league for british replacements.

.....and am I right in thinking he's played for both NZ and Samoa since then?

Yes. Although his NZ cap was that nonsense game against England at St Helens when it was just kiwis based in England playing.

I agree that we really shouldn't bother with average overseas players, but the problem is that world-class players cost too big a chunk of the cap. A truly world-class player would be in the region of £200k+; three of those would only leave us with £1m to split amongst the other 22 in the squad, which is an average of about £45k each.

Ian Lenagan has already said he wants a more balanced squad in terms of salaries, and I think he's right.

You're way out on this. Phelps is on peanuts. Bailey took a massive pay cut at the end of his last contract and Carmont came to us on peanuts but got a raise at the end of his previous contract. He wanted a 2 year deal this time and, I believe, we got him for good money this time round by offering him that based on appearances.

To balance that out we have more youth/academy players coming through the ranks than any other side and we all know that the majority of those aren't on good money. In fact, some are on terrible money as the Chris Ashton case clearly shows!

The only 'over priced' players that I'm aware of are Fielden and Feka. I'm pretty sure that IL has stated we aren't even up to cap at the present moment....and that's before we get into all the players we have or have been out on loan!

One of these players was offered to another Super League club last year but they couldn't afford him as he would have been their highest paid player - strange but true.

Don't tell me that Gleeson is on peanuts too, the players wouldn't come from overseas if the money wasn't decent. Look, I'm not saying you're over the cap, but I'll bet, like most of the teams in SL at the moment, you're right on it.

Which player / which club?

You don't need to know that.

He's a Warrington Fan, It must be true!

I mean when we speculate it's all rubbish, when they do the same it's FACT!

Hodgson is a good capture for Wire if he stays fit. Hes got a lot of ability but one thing that goes first is pace and if he loses that at FB hes going to get exposed. Given he will be 33 he we be getting slower and takes longer to recover from injuries. But if he stays fit he will do well.

But if i was a Wire fan i would be concerned at the amount of players who will leave within a 12 month period at the end of this season and next. Way too many players are near or the wrong side of 30. We had this issue a few years ago and we almost got relegated and its taken best part of 3 years for Brian Noble to get us stable. We have been extremly fortunate that so many youngsters have developed together at the right time. Prescott, both Tomkins brothers, Goulding (most improved player in SL), Mossop and Liam Farrell has been impressive in what ive seen of him all look decent SL players and are in the main tied down to decent contracts.

It takes a long time to recover if they copy the old Wigan way and tbh thats what they are doing. Im not gutted that we did not get Hodgson far from it. We have Roberts at FB and on form this season hes the better of the 2. And more important much younger.