Sport Today

I found the following article on the Leeds Rhinos website:

http://www.sporting-life.com/rleague/leeds/

I found it very interesting, although I would being a Rhinos fan, and
particularly enjoyed Hetherington's comments regarding the possible
future wing partnership.  Christ, if we got those two, I wouldn't fancy
anyone's chances against us, provided we had kept the nucleus of the
side that (almost) brought us success last year.

SAILOR RETURN ON THE CARDS

By Ian Laybourn, PA Sport

Wendell Sailor's cameo show in British rugby league ends on Friday but
Leeds Rhinos are hoping their famous guest will soon be back for a more
permanent role at Headingley.

The Australian Test winger makes the second of two appearances for the
Yorkshiremen in their Tetley Challenge against Castleford but his brief
stint with Leeds could be a prelude to a long-term run with the Rhinos.

The 24-year-old Sailor is out of contract with the Brisbane Broncos next
autumn and Leeds will be first in with an offer, confident of beating
off any competition from top-flight union clubs.

"Wendell will be saying goodbye to the Rhinos fans tomorrow but we're
hoping it might not be his last appearance," said chief executive Gary
Hetherington.

"We've made no secret of the fact that part of the deal was for him to
sample rugby in Britain, league and union, and we hope he enjoys his
time with us.

"He's only 24 and perhaps further down his career, we could see him
returning to Headingley as a full-time Rhinos player, possibly playing
for the union side as well.

"He is out of contract at Brisbane after the 1999 season and he'll
always be welcome here."

Hetherington threw up the mouth-watering prospect of Sailor, who is
vying with Wigan's Jason Robinson for the title of best rugby league
winger in the world, teaming up with the legendary Jonah Lomu in the
Rhinos side by the year 2000.

The Headingley club have kept in touch with Lomu ever since the giant
All Black wing almost signed for them in 1996.

"When we had Jonah over last Christmas for a lunch, he explained how
close he went to signing for Leeds after the last World Cup," said
Hetherington.

"He said he would like to play in England and, if so, it would be with
Leeds. What a wing partnership that would be, Wendell on one wing and
Jonah on the other!

"I think Jonah comes out of contract at the end of the 1999 World Cup,
though he is into acting and other interests now."

Meanwhile, Sailor is steeling himself for three matches in eight days as
he prepares to resume his temporary amateur status with Leeds Tykes.

The Allied Dunbar Premiership Second Division club have a League match
at Coventry on Sunday and visit Rotherham in the Tetley's Cup on
Saturday week.

Leeds have yet to receive official notification of a four-point
deduction for playing Sailor in a League match against Rotherham in
November before his registration was accepted by the RFU but intend to
launch an appeal as soon as possible.

? PA Sporting Life

Yours, preying this story will materialise,

Neil 'The Real Deal' B.

'There's none more blind
 than them that won't listen' - Del Boy,
                                Only Fools and Horses

As close as Sheffield Eagles got, Mr H, when you claimed you were going to
sign Lomu for a million quid when you were in charge there a few years
ago...?

Why not concentrate on developing the latent RL talent in Leeds with
whatever money you have floating around, and invite some of the amateurs
working their nuts off in your city round for Christmas dinner next year
instead of pampering the likes of Jonah ***y Lomu.

What is it with RL people (not just at Leeds either) that they constantly
feel the need to doff a cap in the direction of players from another sport
instead of talking up our own talented players.

It really pisses me off - big time, and it's nothing to do with being
'anti-Leeds' - Hetherington's unfathomable (IMO) obsession with Jonah Lomu
drove me nuts when he was at Sheffield too.

John
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I agree .

1)Who's going to do his tackling for him ?

2)Have you got enough women's magazines over there for him to dribble about
his failed relationships ,etc .

3)When are you going to develop your own players instead of having 20-30
AustraKiwis taking up your team positions ? Unless you reduce your imports
your national team is going to find it harder and harder to compete .You
have a smaller player pool ,therefore less players to pick from .

At the very least get some GB rugby players so they can represent you .
                                                          Cheers,
                                                           Shark .

A million quid buys an awful lot of youth development

--
steve

20-30 'AustraKiwis'?  I think you'll find that only six 'AustraKiwis'
are allowed in any European SuperLeague squad.  At Leeds we currently
have ten English/GB internationals (as well as two NZ internationals and
an Australian international) the reigning Academy Champions for at least
the last three years, probably more, (through which the likes of Adrian
Morley and Francis Cummins have risen through) and *the* best young
talent around in Kevin Sinfield.  He definitely *will* (barring a
serious injury) be wearing a GB shirt in the next two years and he's
still only eigh***.  I agree with us having a smaller pool, and
therefore less GB talent in the country, but I think Leeds and Wigan
have done their best over the last few years to get as much of this
talent as possible between them.

The state of our Academy team/setup is far healthier than any other
English clubs' and I'm sure most people in England will agree with me
when I say that.

See above.

Neil 'The Real Deal' B.

'There's none more blind
 than them that won't listen' - Del Boy,
                                Only Fools and Horses

I think you'll find there was only ever one club going to sign Lomu in
1996, certainly in League, and even more certainly in England.

Like Bradford do?

Neil 'The Real Deal' B.

'There's none more blind
 than them that won't listen' - Del Boy,
                                Only Fools and Horses

I agree.  But when you have the best Academy setup in Britain, surely
its worth giving everyone else a chance rather than improving ours to
the point where no one else in England will ever catch up with it?  :-)

Neil 'The Real Deal' B.

'There's none more blind
 than them that won't listen' - Del Boy,
                                Only Fools and Horses

I presume you mean they've developed the talent between them, not "done
their best over the last few years to get as much of this talent as possible
between them"!!! Although they've done both.

Still, all professional clubs should do more to forge links between
themselves and amateur clubs in their area, perhaps in a similar way that
Bradford does with the dosh they pay for ex-amateur players, rather than
just concentrating on the academy leagues. We'd have a much larger pool of
players to draw from and make the whole sport much stronger if club chairman
would take a long term view of the development of the game as a whole rather
than feathering their own nests for the next 12 months. Spending 1 million
on Lomu would be false economy in the long run. Why can they not throw a few
grand in the direction of clubs such as East Leeds, Hunslet Parkside and
other West Yorkshire amateur clubs?

For as strong as the Leeds and Wigan academies may be, they are only strong
with respect to the other academy teams. The players coming through are not
a patch on the ones that came through from BARLA at the end of the
70's/early 80's. Please step forward any aspiring Andy Gregorys, Mike
Gregorys, Ellery Hanleys, Gary Schofields, Joe Lydons, etc etc.

Cheers,

Andrew.

My advice is stop when you have the best set up in the world not England
--
steve

You could be right but good things are starting to happen down here, we
have a few lads coming through our cocney ranks and two or three should
make the grade this season

--
steve

See above.

I believe that you're being too insular. When I referred to 20-30, I was
meaning throughout the Superleague. If you're allowed six,that could mean up
to seventy two imports! If you have your BARLA players coming through,where
will they play? I believe it could mean that a hasbeen could be stopping an
up and comer. This is not just to start an argument but for League to be
strong, the International game has to be strong. The other thing is that you
also need to develop your coaches. Again ,if you have AustraKiwis doing the
job, that's less spaces for your guys.

                                                              Cheers,
                                                              Shark.

On Thu, 7 Jan 1999 18:58:50 +0000, Neil Barraclough

Which a four too many IMO.

What is more players like Henry Paul who have played in GB for a
certain length of time (forget how long it has to be) actually come
off the overseas quota.

Therefore you can end up with more than 6 foreigners in a side.

Six is bad enough from a GB point of view but allowing players off the
quota just makes matters worse.

Out of interest, is there any GB side (excluding London and Gateshead)
that have six or more foreign players in the 1st team squad?

Dave

--

Wigan Warriors RLFC - 1998 Super League Champions
(Oh - and Grand Final winners as well)

Change "astalasvista" to "altavista" when replying via email and
replace ".jnk" with ".net"
.

The current Bradford team/sqad includes R. Paul, H. Paul and T. Vaikona (not
to mention the coach and one assistant coach) in addition to five imports
that do count towards the quota.  Ten overseas employees of the club.
Tis can not be good for the future of the game as a whole

Andy

My point was that Gary Hetherington is an old hand at the "we're going to
sign Jonah Lomu" line. But Lomu never actually arrives. He did it when he
was at Sheffield - that's a matter of recorded fact, not my fevered
imagination. What I can't understand is his obsession with Lomu, when he
would be better engaged in talking about the Rugby LEAGUE players already at
Leeds.

Given that Leeds Tykes RU pull in barely a thousand, even when Wendell
Sailor is playing, yet Leeds Rhinos can pull in four*** times that number
to a friendly game, it seems to me that the Leeds public have made it clear
which kind of rugby they prefer, and Gary Hetherington ought to take note
and act accordingly.

Well, Neil, my initial posting was never intended as a "my club's better
than your club" thing, as I find that kind of stuff tedious in the extreme.
If Bradford went sniffing around over hyped and untried RU players, I'd have
no fear in voicing my objection to it in this NG and elsewhere. I certainly
wouldn't keep quiet about it just because I'm a fan of the club, because it
would be detrimental to the GAME as a whole, which is of more concern to me.

Incidentally, I'm as concerned as others in this NG at Bradford's current
reliance on overseas players, and disagree with the RFL rule which allows
players to come off the overseas register after "x" number of years.
However, it's worth pointing out that, following a policy instigated by
former Aussie coach Brian Smith, Bradford became the first British club to
voluntarily increase the amount paid to amateur clubs when a player was
signed professionally. Instead of the paltry 50 which they are obliged to
pay under RFL rules, they pay 500. Still not enough IMO, but better than
50. This doesn't just apply to newly signed amateurs, but to any player
signed by the club. For example, Steve McNamara was able to nominate an
amateur club in Hull to receive 500 when the Bulls signed him, even though
he had been a professional player with Hull FC. Similarly, the trio signed
from St Helens in the Newlove exchange (Nickle, Dwyer and Loughlin) did the
same, and so on.

No professional RL club does enough to support the amateurs, but IMO, to
hear highly placed RL officials - from ANY club - waxing lyrical in the
media about the alleged appeal and high market value of players from RU is
adding insult to injury for those who play and sustain RL at its roots.

John
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The fact that they had done both is what I was trying to highlight.
Sorry if this was unclear.

I'm not getting at what you're saying, but if the players don't have the
talent in the first place then surely that is not the fault of the
clubs?  Players like Hanley, Schofield and Andy Gregory were naturals,
that just improved their game in the pro setup.  But if the best Academy
players don't have that gift (which is what you need to be as good as
these 'greats') then surely you cannot expect the clubs to install it
into the players.  Whilst the clubs can improve the young players
talents, the player needs some talent in the first place.

Neil 'The Real Deal' B.

'There's none more blind
 than them that won't listen' - Del Boy,
                                Only Fools and Horses