Here are the relevant rules as provided by the RFL;

[iAt all times each official squad of 25 players must contain a minimum of 8 'Club trained' players which includes 'Club Trained Whilst There' and no more than 5 quota players or 5 non federation trained players.

A Club Trained Player is one who has been on his current club's register for three full seasons before the end of the season in which he ceases to be eligible by age to play Under 21's.

A Club Trained Whilst There player is one who has spent part of his time but not three full years on his current club's register before the end of the season in which he ceases to be eligible by age to play Under 21's.

A Non Federation Trained player is one who does not meet the definitions of Club Trained (which includes club trained whilst there), Federation Trained or are not working towards either.

Overseas Quota (different to federation trained regulations) the quota status is entirely dependent on the type of passport the player holds. Players who have an EU passport or who carry a passport of a country that is party to an Association Agreement , a Europe Agreement or the Cotonou Agreement (Kolpak) do not count on the overseas quota.
[/i

Immediately prior to the start of this season which was when I requested this information Tyla Hepi was not registered in the first team squad and Hull Kingston Rovers players were classified as follows ;

[iClub Trained; Welham, Cox, Latus, Beaumont, Green.

Club Trained Whilst There; J. Hodgson, Lovegrove, Salter, Griffin.

Federation trained; Eden, Hall, Gleeson, D. Hodgson, Horne, Carlile, Dobson, Withers, O'Hara, Walker, Caro, Brown.

Non- Federation Trained; Burns, Mika, Paea, Paterson, Tuimavave.

Quota; Dobson, Burns.

(Withers & O'Hara special dispensation, Dobson exempt from non fed trained due to having signed a professional RL contract with a British club prior to February 2008 when the non fed rulings were introduced). The list of names in a 25 man squad can change during the season with the prior approval of the RFL but must still conform to the above regulations. Each clubs 25 man squad may and in most cases does differ to the top 25 in terms of salary cap.[/i

As provided by the RFL. I also have definitions & rules regarding loan players, dual registrations, 'real time' salary cap and 'Salary Cap Value' rankings (SCV's), 1st tier salary cap and 2nd tier salary cap plus the new playing laws for season 2013. I usually find people have opinions but little or no knowledge of these areas too.

There are actually 26 HKR players in the above lists one of whom was not initially registered in the first team squad of 25 or indeed for salary cap purposes. I believe this player to be Ryan O'Hara due to there being no prospect of him being available to play. In the event he was not registered at any stage.

But that's not what you said.

And posters looked at the relevant rules available by the RFL, to suggest people have opinions with little or no knowledge would be arrogant and the end of your post is guess work.

Fair enough. It represents a fairly major shift and maybe a wider announcement or even just amending the rules would have been in order.

I'm more amazed they still have statements like "eligible for the under 21's". Are they any under 21's side anymore?

Not that I know of. I guess it is a just a handy way to do the age cut-off.

How many times have we been through the quota non fed fed club trained malarkey

The rules seem to me as far to complicated, In my opinion We should only have qualified for any Great Britain side or overseas player & agree a limit on overseas numbers. If we want to encourage clubs to develop young players give salary cap adjustments or make clubs pay for recruiting from other clubs juniors regardless of being out of contract. If Tyla was born here or brought up & started his rugby career here he should be GB qualified.If he opts for his fathers country he should be classed as overseas. We have stupid examples like Dixon at Cas not being Fedaration trained as he came to Cas from union despite the fact he is from Hull & was in the junior set up at one of the citys teams. But expecting the RFL to do the simple & sensible thing is the problem.

I agree it is too complicated. However, they [ucan't[/u discriminate on basis of passport against those with EU or 'Kolpak/Cotonou' passports - it'd be illegal.
It is very hard for the RFL to implement a protectionist policy, either stopping overseas players coming in or homegrown players moving, as it flies in the face of laws based on free movement of labour.

They are not discriminating just laying down the rules of the competition if all clubs agree the rules they just don't employ non GB players. I agree you can't stop players moving on but you can make clubs pay for their training you just make players sign a bond for training, It is done in the aviation industry where traing cost's are prohibative (I am bonded for £15K for an engineering course if I leave before 4 years return of service I have to repay the cost's or the company I join has to & it is enforceable by law) If they choose to lay me off though I owe them nothing.

That would definately be discrimination, against non-GB-qualified players with EU or Kolpak passports and a legal right to work here.

RL competitions don't exist outside of the law. I know there are exceptions made - the registration system and so on. But that is why we have the faff of the non-fed rule - it is complicated out of necessity, because they're walking a very fine line.

The training bond is a very interesting idea - but we kind of have that anyway, with a small fee being payable when young players move clubs. Perhaps that could be beefed up.