As posted on my new thread about these rulings the RFL cannot make this rule and use nationality as the reason behind it as that would be against the law.

The rules provide that you qualify (if at all) for club trained and/or federation trained status by the age of 21 – there is no possibility, therefore, of qualifying after that by having played rugby union in Australia and then moving to the UK as you mention. However, the aims and the rules make no reference to nationality and we would not be able to make rules that do so for legal reasons. If the aim is to encourage clubs to develop their own junior players, for the benefit of the individual players and the sport in general, then there may well be cases where British players are not considered club trained or federation trained for the very reason that they are not – the examples that you have raised are being trained in Australia or in another sport. Those examples go against the aim of the rules which is for clubs to train their own players.

Not a loophole to get him through, just using the rules for our advantage.

no they didn't they deferred the payments and found a 'loophole' whereby some funds due to players would be paid this season to clear space in the salary cap for last,

this is why they were found guilty of Breaking the SPIRIT of the rules not breaking a rule, and why they were looking to appeal

they could have very easily though said, any player who has had a proffessional RL arrangement with a club outside the federation has to count as a none federation trained player,

Im sure you wouldnt be arguing the same if Leeds use their link up with the Rabbitohs to bring over 4/5 youth team players every year so they no longer count as none federation players

..and at the same time going against the SPIRIT of the game and what those rules were brought in for. Once again British talent loses out.

No no no!

How can it be going against the spirit of the rules? The rules are there as it says to allow clubs to bring through young players no matter what their nationality. It enables the clubs, player and league to improve year on year.

An improvement in the SL youth means a stronger SL competition for years to come and will because 90% of the players will be British mean the national team will be much stronger.

because the spirit of the rules, is to increase the amount of british youth playing at SL level, and also for clubs to be repsonsible for bringing through their own youth encouraging them to invest more in thier youth academies, Rhys Lovegrove is neither of these things,

he is australian, he is australian trained, picking up the cast offs of St George a year earlier than we would have previously is going to benefit anybody,

all it means is we have one more average overseas player than we would have done,

At 20 yrs old he's bumped off more than his fair share of seasoned SL players so to say he's average now is more than a compliment for him because when WE develop him he's going to be something big in the game I have no doubt.

We have not exploited any rules or loopholes nor gone against the spirit of the rules, if that was the case then we'd be fined by the RFL would we not?

Believe what you want to believe but the cold hard facts are that Rhys is a British passport holder and is under 21 so these rules play kindly to him and Rovers.

Because the rules were divised to help bring through more young BRITISH players. However European Employment laws prohibit that aim being stated within the laws on grounds of discrimination/restraint of trade etc. It is up to the clubs to enforce the spirit of the rules, something your club obviously can't be d with.

It is clearly not the aim of the rules to allow clubs to fill their under 21 qualifying players with aussies or kiwis, therefore it is not in the spirit of the game IMO and I defy anyone to state the conrtray.

As stated the RFL could have said ANY player that has had a year with an Australian club or something similar would count on the none federation trained list BUT they didnt their aim is to have young players coming through the British system and lets face it Rhys could play for England in next years World Cup - I defy you to tell me he cant!

Provided he makes himself available to GB/England only and formally declines any acceptance of aussie representative footie then fair enough.

So it could be good for the national game in this country if he is able to not be one of the 10 then?! Thus making it within the spirit of the game.

However even if he is good enough for the national side I very much doubt he'd take us up on it, from what i've heard he's pretty proud to be an Aussie!