Spot on. How we still have winter rugby league is beyond me, it really is. Wouldn't more kids want to give it a go and stick at it if they played in warm weather rather than rolling around in cold, freezing mud? I know I would have! Who coaches the coaches?

Simply because the players crossing over are not first team regullars, it does not mean the players are not going over at an allarming rate.

You would be stunned to see the number of union coaches all over our grass routes games on a weekend.

Jonh, this is RL fans.com.


No amount of whinging and whining will change anything, THIS is not the real world.

You would be amased.

If we as a rugby league community accept this and say, ah well it was always going to happen it always will, if we express our anger eventually something has to be done about it.

john don't give a damn about leeds or smith. the salary cap is doing a great job levelling the playing field for all. i am sure some of the richer clubs would like to get shut of it for their own ends p.s sick to death of watching leeds on tv

Lets try to stay clear of the Wakey Wigan stuff and discuss Smithy and Union please.

I simply think that in a code struggling for British talent, we cannot sit back and not be bothered by a very good player who is essentially still a prospect crossing codes.

While it is getting better, there are still far too few young quality Brits coming through, you only need to look at the results in the reserve league to see that the competition is so poor due to a total lack of quality at some clubs.

If he were to leave Leeds another League club should be in a position to sign him ideally though he would be at Leeds till they deemed they did not need him, i am certain Leeds will want to retain him but due to the structure and restrictions of the cap in its current form they are unable to when they could probably comfortably afford to keep him without risking financial melt down were the cap restructured to reward there ability to have a good turn over and produce talented international players.

Losing Smith to rugby union bothers me!

I agree with John that we have precious few young players who have already demonstrated their ability to be a gamebreaker at the highest level. In my opinion Smith has already done this and is only going to get better.

agree back on topic.

IMHO i dont really think we will miss smith as he never reached the heights of a has been as he was more a never was . Im also sure that quite a few RU fans are scratching their heads saying LEE who?.
I would be more worried if yet again another big star under 30 decided to move.

I don't watch RU at any level as i despise the game so i can not really comment on farrell and other RU converts apart from to say i have not heard anything of them.

He is still a young prospect he is 22. As i said earlier he was regarded along with Inglis as one of the top prospects in World Rugby League a few years ago. To be fair he stagnated for a couple of years but last year really kicked on.

His performance in the Grand Final was nothing short of World Class had Webb produced that performance we would still be talking about it now, we as a code in my opinion cannot allow players with such potential to and proven ability to perform leave our code.

The talent pool is so small, we cannot allow it to get even smaller and remove one of its biggest fish.

Myler tipped for an England call up sooner rather than later.

Ashton broke the League scoring record in his first season in the game. Was being banded about as a potential British Lion player earlier in the season form dropped off by all accounts now and he is in and out of the Northampton side at the moment.

Faz England international, Sarricens captain.

Owen Farrell & George Ford Englands stand out performers in the 18's age group 6 Nations last year (a team captained by a lad from Wakefield, an inside centre and massive League fan). Owen Farrell, and i may be wrong but think i am correct is the youngest player to ever play first team rugby union in the Guiness Premiership.

i agree about the GF performance and that part about the infallible brent web but i think its a little over hype IMHO

Would you not like to see how he develops in the next 3 years. He is not the finished article but he is still one of the few flair players and top prospects in the game, allowing him to leave and our inability to prevent it from happening, is very bad for the game as a whole.

nothing more than a world beating GB side would i like to see but i believe that's comes from the heart and if smith was ambitious in league then he would of stayed , you will have to excuse me but i m trying to think of a top SL who turned union down a couple of years ago but for the life in me i can not remember

Incidentally can i apologise for my part in the thread getting out of hand.

I do enjoy posting on here and i do indeed love Trinity. I also love rugby league and am very very passionate about the development of our young talent which is why i so adoment on the issue, i have been involved in it for the last 5 years now at one level or another and it breaks my heart to think that some of the players I and others have invested so much time and effort in, at best can hope to play league as a stepping stone for a career in union.

Apologies once again.

Jonh.

Pryce Radlinski and Cunningham all did it, not sure about Pryce but the latter 2 were given massive financial insentives to stay in League from external scources.

i think a few of us let it go astay

Is smith actually going or is it a ploy just to up contract talks?

Its been in the Yorkshire post that Wasps and Wigan have been interested.

So he hasnt signed anything then?

Nothing confirmed.

Absolute non story then

Anyway why would Wigan be interested?

1. He isnt Australian
2. He's under 30

the rfl set the coaching standards. at the moment there is new badges to work for you do a paper on rules a coaching session for maybe 15 mins and some book work. the level 2 now is more health and safety than coaching, bottles in a square, post protectors on ambuance access, first aid kits. these are supposed to be filled out before sessions. very few unless theyre completely hopless will fail a badge. many coaches in the junior game take a team on reluctanly as a parent as there is no one else and they do this to keep the teams afloat. they need help, they need to be looked at when theyve done there badge and guided along. the top badge to coach at sl and pro is supposed to be absolutly stupid, with 12 modules many none game related and at a cost of nearly a thousand pounds yes a grand.

The system is beyond flawed to say the least.