Star RL players earn a similar amount, some more

and if RU want to pay unsustainable sums to bring players back, thats fine, the only game that damages is RU!

two below average RU players are two of our best three-quarters in the country

Not it doesn't. It is simply an acknowledgement that to temp them to switch codes would have to throw more cash at them. Noble however is living on cloud cuckoo land if he thinks £50K plus whatever clubs could afford under the salary cap is enough to tempt the type of players he mentioned in the interview.



So what you are saying is we pay a player £300K while he learns the game £50K of which is discounted from the salary cap?

And you can't see this is a completely ludicrous suggestion?



We have not brought them through because the clubs bar about three of them have completely failed to invest in player development and have gone for the quick fix of overseas players.

What you are advocating is another quick fix and a very expensive one. Flinging money at RU players is no different to giving it to overseas players. Yet again clubs do not have to develop their own talent. It is also an unrealistic one and thank goodness it is.

As to the English back line being better than any in RL at the moment whether they are or not they are not coming this way so instead of daft unrealistic notions of saying we should raid RU for them the game should concentrate on sorting it's own player development out.

Dave

no, its not, its an acknowledgement that these are players who have alternative options, pretending that we exist in isolation is living in cloud cuckoo land, we dont, and we need to accept that



well yes, it is a completely ludicrous suggestion, so ludicrous in fact that nobody has suggested it,

you seem to have completely misunderstood what noble was suggesting, which wasnt that we discount £50k from the cap, it was it only COSTS £50k on the cap

Leeds could go out and get say ASDA to sponsor the signing of Shane Williams, they will pay him £400k, only £50k of which would count on the cap

this would mean the risk represented to the club would only be £50k, on the cap




so why have those 3 clubs still struggled to bring through any one of sufficient quality



no what im advocating we stop pretending RU doesnt exist and that things havent fundementally changed since they went professional,

we compete for the same player pool as RU, naturally talented three-quarters now have the option of playing RU and making a good if not better living from it, this means we lose plenty at youth level, and plenty who never even bother with us,

there is nothing wrong with trying to bring these players into the game, what you seem to be saying is that any player brought in from RU is a bad thing but this isnt the case, getting quality british players from anywhere is a good thing, one player per team isnt going to mean RL clubs will stop trying to develop young players,

RU clubs cannot afford to increase thier salary cap. It is already pretty much ignored and they spend what they want - and they cant compete with French RU now.

Stade Francais has a playing budget of £20m - no club in either code in England can afford to compete with that.

I would go out of my way to sign players who would have a positive influence over team mates.
Tuigamala was an excellent signing and wonderful infuence over Jason Robinson, taking him from a very good player to world class. Ellery Hanley didn't drink and his fitness was legendary.
Leeds have Leuluai who says he is tea total and plays like a man possessed.
I'm glad that many Aussies have been refused visas because they would only have a negative influence on our game.
So, I don't mind where the players come from as long as they improve Wigan. I would look at ability, cost but also lifestyle.