The Welsh experiment has now had a couple of years to develop, so what do we think of it now that we have enough data to make a propoer analysis.

From my reckonings, the Welsh lads who have come through this route are :

Ben Flower - big success, but was a SL player before we bought him
Gil Dudson - big frame but inconsistent. Long term future in doubt.
Rhodri Lloyd - loaned out but never done enough to get a regular 1st team squad place at Wigan. what is his best position ?
Andy Powell - failure. Bad mental attitude.
Rhys Pugsley - still U19. lots of potential, but a long way down the line at the moment

Iestyn Harris - decent back-up coach, but bombed the Wales National gig at the WC and has not impressed at Salford.

South Wales Scorpions - replaced as link by Workington this season. Bottom of Champ 1.

On the whole, apart from Ben Flower, all of the players have been overtaken by other signings or U19 players.
The South Wales Scorpions experiment failed, as their record shows they are not producing players of a good standard. They have only won a single game this season in the league.

Whilst it looked like a good idea at the time, I dont see any real benefits that have come of it. South Wales is a hotbed of Rugby talent, but the best players will always gravitate to RU because of the adulation and money.

Can we now forget Wales and concentrate on developing the locally produced product and picking up talent like Sarge and bateman when they become available ?

I would rather we carried on and tried to expand our links in Wales, you can't call it a failure after 3 years you need to give it at least 10 years and try to develop a few youngsters. And there is also the commercial side to this that I'm guessing nobody would know how that has performed, even though i don't believe we have really gave our selves maximum exposure in Wales. I do know a few people from Hereford who are now avid followers of Wigan.

Bloody hell talk about a negative post!!

The Wales investment is a great asset to the club and is only in its infancy.

The thought if walking away at this stage is ridiculous. Wales has always produced great rugby league players and will continue to do so. To not have a presence as we do there only opens the door for others exploit the hot bed of rugby.

its not a negative post, its an honest assessment 2 years down the line.
the fact is that the talent we have identified has not really progressed at a good pace, and they have been overtaken by other players. It is not me that abandoned S W Scorpions but the Club itself, in favour of putting players out to develop in Cumbria.
There are 2 issues here.
1 what does RL as a whole want to do in Wales ? and that is a question for the RFL
2 what do we as a Club want to do ?

My concern is that we have such a good talent stream coming through, that young players only have 2-3 seasons before they are overtaken by the next lot. Therefore, looking for talent in Wales is very laudable, but is the development rate of the players that cross over too slow so that they are being overtaken by the locally developed youngsters who have grown up in the game ?
Does anyone know what the Club's current position is on Wales as we dont send players down to Scorpions any more ? (I also have not seen a continued drip feed of Welsh players into the development squads; but there are those on the boards that will know better).

I am very selfish here, and want the best for the Club, not Welsh RL, therefore I want resources to be focussed in the best possible area. After 2 years of targetting Wales, I do not see the progress I would have liked to have seen.

As for the 'talent line of Welsh players' - when was the last genuinely good Welsh RL player who was a cross code convert as opposed to players like Briers and Harris who were English born and bred ? Time have changed and Welsh RFU have lots of money to pay players salaries that we cannot match. I would for a Lee Halfpenny, Mike Phillips or an Adam Jones to play RL, but we cant compete with them now.
My concern is that we are targetting an area with very little bargaining power to be able to convince players to make the change.

Pugsley isn't a long way down the line. Waney said he was in line to debut in May but he got injured.

Far too early to say it's failed. What a negative post!

Your view summed up here...

Far too soon to judge....

South wales owed Wigan money for the dual reg players they were getting and couldn't afford to keep up process. The setup looks good at the moment down there and should start producing in a couple more years on the playing front.

In 2 years we have not produced a Billy Boston or Jonathan Davies as such we are wasting our time!!

2 years is absolutely nothing in a development area.

We must maintain our links in Wales and I have absolutely no doubt that they will produce first team players for Wigan given a bit of time and effort.

I think the Welsh experiment (if thats the right word) is great and is a fantastic initiative by the club. There are stacks of very good Rugby players, of either code, in Wales and we would be stupid not to try and tap into that. Its good for Rugby League in general too.