I agree that we could lose some star England players, but like you said, it's better for the England team that they are playing in the best competition, and i'd rather lose them to the NRL and keep them in league than them go to union.

Morley has already been there, done that and got the T-Shirt......but who out of the other 31 would be able to cut it in the NRL?
Or, put another way, if this is the best England has to offer how come there are only 3 guys currently in the NRL.

would that be the Puletua thats just signed a 2 year deal at ST HELENS?

Quote ="Saddened!"No, replacing Flannery and Puletua dearest '" www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 32,00.html Puletua signs 2 year deal. Bit gutted to be honest as a Wire fan, decent player.

Quote ="Saddened!"No, replacing Flannery and Puletua dearest '" www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 32,00.html Puletua signs 2 year deal. Bit gutted to be honest as a Wire fan, decent player.

Yeah, because not a lot has changed in the last 10 years for us to think anything could change in the next 10 years has it...

We could always apply for English franchises in the NRL and reap the rewards of their increased salary cap

So apart from getting a new stadium , what has changed for you ? , and apart from getting a new stadium , what will change for any of the others ?

Will Salford be pulling in 12,000 ? , will Hudderfield ? , Quins ? , if they still exist ?

If you think it will be drastically different , pray tell us

How long has flannery played in the halves or at full back?

And puletua just signed a new contract

You've signed two imports to replace two british players and you have the audasity to moan at wigan and HKR?

wigan infact have sam tomkins, joel tomkins, darrell goulding, michael mcillorum, chris tuson, liam farrell, sean o'loughlin, josh charnley, stefan marsh, harrison hansen all in the first team regularly and all who have came through the wigan system. Thats without including the likes of deacon whoose a wigan lad and fielden whoose british in the side regularly.

But hey, let's not get facts get in the way of your incorrect opinion shall we?

Apart from a stadium? Hmm...
Better quality academy, more than double crowds, running at a profit, on average far more competitive than the previous 10 years, better profile in the city.

Huddersfield are pretty much the same (apart from profit and new stadium). They're getting more than double the crowds, have a much better academy, are far far more competitive, are producing far better players and have a far better profile in and around Huddersfield.

Quins will never grow as Quins, and are still making the same mistakes unfortunately.

Salford, who knows what the new stadium could bring.

Look at Warrington. Hull KR. Widnes will grow. Wigan. Catalans and RL in France in general.

But no, it'll all be the same in 10 years.

There appear to be a fair few people that cannot see the factual inaccuracies of their arguments due to the massive chips on their shoulders!

Its a biggun'! Saddo's going to need a bigger boat,

Pretty much all as a result of getting a new stadium , are you going to get another in the next 10 years ? , ditto Huddersfield , and they still need a million a year putting in , their crowds have leveled off recently despite dirt cheap ST s

Salfords new stadium might give them a boost , or then again it might not

Warrington , new stadium again and investement from Mr Moran

HKR will possibly grow a bit more and should start to see some juniors cone through , but still not massive improvements from now on

Overall things will remain similar to what they are now

agreed,as long as there is a broadcaster still willing to pump in the loot.............

Indeed. I'm surprised at some of the short-sighted replies so far. With over double the salary cap the Aussies could afford to have the best of their players back and the best of ours as icing on their cake. Great.

as someone pointed out though would you rather we lost our talent to the NRL or to union.....

Definitely to the NRL, I hope we can get about twenty blokes playing in the elite league.

Then shove ‘em in the International team, and finally have a chance of beating the Antipodeans.

Last time I checked, Hudds were playing in that "new" stadium for a while before 2001, and have come on massively since then, so you can't attribute that to a new stadium.
Regardless of which, why does it matter? Why can you choose to ignore the stadium and the benefits?

Overall, it seems things are similar apart from the things you've chosen to ignore...

No I attribute it to being relegated , actually then winning some games , and then having a million pound a season ploughed into them ever since , but they now have leveled out support wise , and I dont expect that to change drastically in the next 10 years , so as long as in 10 years time there is still somebody willing to tip 20K a week in , they'll be fine

The England vs Exiles concept would have to change if most of the NRL players go home. Do you think they would go back to playing France?

There will always be imports. The quality just may not be as good as in the past.

There will always be imports, but if the purpose of the game is to provide England with a competitive fixture, playing against low quality imports isn't going to give that.

But then again, England can be pretty poor

as for imports it will make very little diferrence, the days of wally lewis, peter sterling, brett kenny etc are long gone.

if they are playing here its simply because they are not wanted badly enough by the nrl.

unfortunately i can see some of our top brits going in the other direction though.

the gap is just getting bigger. personally i would scrap the salary cap but this is a view not many share

plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

If the NRL take 20 plus of our best players they can play it in Australia ( Iam sure it would be no bother playing a mid season international as they would not have to travel) & the lads still here play France. But in all seriousness whatever hapens the Aussies wont give a to$$ about what hapens here never have never will. I will just wait & see as most changes in our game throw up unforseen efects.

Exactly.

And France have been poorer!

It will continue until the French/Welsh have enough depth that having a French/Welsh international does not affect their clubs to the point where they won't want to release most of their players, thus resulting in the inevitable whitewash and non-event of the past 4 years.