another story in RLW says wigan have secret plans to ditch all imports within 5 years. dont know if this is because of the RFL reducing the quotas allowed buts its a good thing



other SL clubs are set to follow suit



the article also says luke patten is being chased by the giants to replace hogdson

I disagree, I think having imports improves our game for the compeition and the supports having the chance to watch players like Lyon, Vainakolo and the Paul Brothers is something that i would miss.



What the RFL needs to do is tighten up the quota rules so that no club can have more than say 4 quota players, make it tight so there are no loopholes, soemthing like they are born in Europe or have European passport and have come through at European Rugby clubs youth system. Quite hard to do, but I'm sure they can improve on the current system.

You're bang on Dave. I don't mind maybe 3 imports, but I can't stand it when Jason Demetriou isn't an import player because he sounds greek.

nothing wrong with imports as long as they are a suitable calibre. I'd make it rep players within the last 3 years only.

nowt wrong with having 3 or even 4 high class imports...its the gash ones we need to get rid of...we have our own gash players...

I agree JB, it's just i'm not sure how legal that is. All the equality rubbish makes it hard to put guidelines like that in.

don;t they already have some criteria with having tp have played so many NRL games in the last two years? The RFL can basically work with the Govt to come up with anything they like (or there are ways and means such as linking the club grant to number of English players, salary cap restrictions etc.) If there was a will I'm sure there is a way!

I think in sport it has something to do with appearances for club and country. I remember reading something about Man Utd waiting a work permit on a Mexican player due to this.

with our salary to rise to $6 - 7 million by 2012, SL wont be able to afford them



theres a very good chance that the flow of players will go the other way, especially if the dollar stays strong.

Think they will come a time in the next couple of years where the salary cap will have to be increased to fight off the NRL and Union, whose Cap is much higher than ours.



Not sure if some clubs would be ablt to afford the increase though as tehy are already struggling.

the problem is who can afford the cap to raise?

SL will just have to start developing more players



on what ive seen from burgess, ellis or flanagan, it shouldnt be a problem



the nrl is never going to be a big threat to SL but having say 10 - 20 players in the nrl will be very good for the advancement of RL.



after all morley returned, so will burgess, ellis etc.