news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 323885.stm I don't know if it's been mentioned already, but here's the story. Watched him play for England Academy before christmas and he looked really promising.

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 323885.stm I don't know if it's been mentioned already, but here's the story. Watched him play for England Academy before christmas and he looked really promising.

Signed for 2 years. Meant to play U20s, but may play in the open age NSW Cup comp for experience against grown ups.

Be interesting to get the Bradford fans thoughts on this. If this was my club, I would not be very happy. First Sam Burgess and now the promising George Burgess before he has even made a first team appearance. Alright, Tom Burgess has stayed with the club, but from a Bradford prospective I would have loved to have seen all three in action for the club.

double edged sword imo. Might improve Englands chances but weakens SL. Do you really want a club comp with the best players playing overseas?

Nrl clubs have had to fight off sl sides for years, the boots on the other foot and sl sides don't like it. Tough.

Hardly, it has been very rare that a current Kangaroo has signed for SL, generally they have been avg squad players or occasionally a decent player that's misbehaved and booted out of NRL or an aging player at the end of his career. Every now and again you get a decent contract disputed player but I would struggle to name 5 world class NRL players that have signed for SL in their prime.

matt king and danny buderus where both kangaroo 1st teamers when they came here

Matt King I'll give you, Buderus was at the end and Smith would have been no1 hooker even if he'd stayed. Buderus last game for Kangaroos was 06, he signed for Leeds for 09 season, he'd already lost his starting Kangaroos jersey.

It doesn't really matter what people think. If any player wants to leave there is little anyone can do to prevent it, contract or no contract. To be completely open about it, I'm far more interested in the players who want to play for the club than those who wish to go. Good luck to both of them, but if Sam goes backwards and George doesn't make the grade it's been brilliant business by the Bulls, they didn't want to stay here anyway, so were hardly going to give their best if forced to see out their contracts, so however well they play in future is pretty irrelevant.

Are we now to think that after 15 years of Superleague we are deemed good enough to to be a feeder comp for the NRL?

The reality is that Sydney offers young people a lifestyle that Bradford, or indeed most places in the UK, doesn't. Some people will be attracted to it, others won't be. I'm sure that the Burgess brothers have nothing against the Bulls but ultimately, it appears that they feel that their careers and their lifestyle are likely to benefit living nearer to Bondi than Buttershaw.

There's not much that the SL clubs can do about that. We recently had Eammon McMannus [url=http://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=rleague/10/11/18/RUGBYL_St_Helens_McManus.insdatclaiming that the RFL needs to "do something"[/url to stop the likes of James Graham moving to the NRL whilst, in the same breath, admitting that Graham wasn't being motivated by the money on offer in Australia but by the lifestyle. How on earth can the RFL "do something" about that?

Yes, the exchange rate helps but in all seriousness, could you blame a player who is good enough to play in the NRL from giving it a go?

Indeed and then add in the fact that they will very probably come back a better player for it.
Everyone agrees that as far as RL goes its Southern hemisphere or bust ATM we need as many British players playing in that enviroment as possible as when they return 'Home' they will bring that RL enviroment back with them and hopefully to pass on to the next generation.