If we play Hkr in Cardiff at stages in the game we could see

8. Moa
9. Berrigan
10. O'Meley
11. Lauaki
12. Manu
13. Fitzgibbon

V

4. Webster
6. Green
7. Dobson
8. Clinton
9. Fisher
10. Vella
11. Mason
12. Newton
13. Galea

Thoughts?

The amount of players at Hull is about average I would guess, strange that they all play in the pack, as it is England’s strongest position.

If Rovers do go to 9 overseas players it will be very disappointing for our game (they are not alone, Salford and Wakefield are just as bad), these clubs go on about their youth development but seem to be increasing the number of overseas players.

The RFL can do nothing about it at the moment as they are open to lawsuits from players who signed contracts pre 2007 (I think) once these player start retiring every club will be down to 5 overseas players, no exceptions etc.

This may take a few years though.

The biggest disappointment for me is the signing of average overseas players, take Bradford for example the player they have just signed is very poor, he has played 1 game this year in the first grade, they have just signed Ainscough, and have Sheriff and Halley also there, I don’t mind clubs signing top NRL players but these reserve graders are ones harmer our game IMO.

I know we sign Moa and that has worked out well, but for every Moa they are 10 other average overseas players that aren't much better than the English players in our game.

Each team should be allowed 3 non english players no mater how long they have being there. Would make our game stronger. Then it needs to be reduced to none non english players. This is the only way our game will improve. For those that say it will make the team game worse. Think about it. Every team will be in the same position so no team will be weaker than the others. You then get to bring the young kids through. We have more players to chose from for the national side. How many English players playing in Aus.

There's currently 4 English players in the nrl.

What about Manu? How should he be classed?
He wasn't trained he but now is available, rightly or wrongly, for England.

What a load of tosh......you've missed Lovegrove off

Who's a forward.

When I saw you posted I had hoped it would be a reasonable effort, never mind.

The sad fact is that even run of the mill NRL players are better than the standard required for SL. Look at Dobson, has never cut it in the NRL but is amongst the top halves in SL.

I used to regularly watch Manly's reserve grade about ten years ago and were convinced they, and a number of their opponents could have comfortably survived in SL at that time. I reckon SL has improved since then but there is still a gulf.

Are these run of the mill aussies also cheaper? I know you'd have to play big bucks for an Ogre but how much does a fringe NRL player cost?

We need to ask ourselves why the NRL players seem to be in better physical shape, better ball skills and faster than SL players.

Combined population of NSW and Queensland ~ 11 million.
Population of Kingston upon Hull ~ 260 thousand.

If all those overseas players came from an Australian city roughly the same size as Hull (say Newcastle, NSW), then it'd be a bit different. There are other issues - cultural, coaching, other codes - but population is the biggest.

edit - if anybody can be bothered to put together a Newcastle (or Townsville maybe) origin team of current players to compare with the Hull equivalent, that'd be quite interesting.

They'd be at an advantage by virtue of our entire back line having been sent off?

I found your population comparison quite interesting; but perhaps comparing Hull to NSW and Queensland is unfair. Perhaps if we compared it to the population of the rugby league heartland of the UK. Yorks/Lancs and Cumbria, then perhaps the numbers even out. Having said that they of course have the benefit that RL is their number 1 winter sport; whereas in the UK RL is third.

You can add Rhys Lovegrove to that list of imports., 10 is a disgrace no matter who you support.

i thought with the franshise system we were meant to reduce the amount of overseas players yet teams such as rovers have increased the amount which is shocking. so rovers could and most propably will have 10 overseas players in there starting 17 and people wonder why we dont produce enough players to compete at international level

I have a funny feeling there'll be more imports in sl next season than this.

Think you may be right.

Be interesting to see the difference between the total amount of overseas players in SL in say 2006 when the 'new' rules came in and the total in 2010. Bet there's not that much difference, even though theoretically they should have halved.

The number of imports will drop dramatically at some point, probably 2013.

I think it's 2013 that the salary cap in the NRL is increased, meaning Superleague will be a less attractive prospect. Also by this point, a number of the overseas players currently exempt, who signed before 2008, will have retired.