Exactly. He'll be 29 by the time the 2017 season started and when was the last time an NRL team took on an English player at that age? More likely they'll go for the next promising guy at an early age like they have done with Joe Burgess.

Also Hall is due a testimonial year in 2017 (and Watkins in 2018) so both have upcoming financial incentives to stay at Leeds.

Australia, especially Sydney, and especially Coogee, is a wonderful place to raise a family. I would think that Kallum Watkins and his family would not mind too much the chance to frolic in the surf for six months of every year, especially if the four Burgess boys, Sam's and Luke's family, and mother Burgess, are also down there so often. Don't put it past Kallum Watkins to consider the migration option if Souths offer him a four year contract.

People have not commented here on the great boost for English rugby league it would be if George North was to go to South Sydney.

George North can do without any more concussion scares. I cannot see a switch of codes. More likely he will be an early retiree.

I remember some time back reading one of the puff pieces about the amazing subtlety of tactics that you get in rugby union, which pointed out the great skill in going through phase after phase in attack on your opponents' line, until George North was left with only a prop to defend against him in the corner. And I thought of course, well, if GN needs to be up against a prop to score... He is lionised by the British media, but he's never struck me as anything that special: he's certainly no Joe Burgess, and he's no Ryan Hall either. I wouldn't see him as anything but 'average SL winger' standard at best.

If Joe Burgess is a success we'll probably see a few younger players being poached by NRL sides. Five years ago the NRL as a whole was almost completely disinterested in British players, with the likes of Morley and Ellis being seen as outliers. That's probably understandable when you look at some of the really poor players that came over about the same time - Thorman, Edmonson, Tansey.

The Burgii and Graham have turned that perspective around, and the success of Cooper and Hodgson has also shown that players don't need to be superstars in SL to be effective in the NRL.

Whos George North?

Ive heard the same. Ive heard Ryan Hall is such a home loving man and doesn't even want to leave the Leeds area.

All it says is that Richardson likes Hall and Watkins.
So do I but they won't be playing at Wakefield any time soon.

Just a filler story and posted on here by a filler poster

He`s a pal of Kyle Eastmond and a cousin of Graeme West.