Rhinos chief Gary Hetherington has dismissed suggestions the club uses their connections to Leeds Tykes rugby union club to recruit talented young league players from outside the Leeds area.

Bulls chairman Chris Caisley has accused Leeds of supporting restrictions on junior recruitment because the club can recruit players from outside their service area into the Tykes' academy, while harsh boundaries mean Bradford cannot sign players from districts close to Odsal from which a large part of the club's fan base is drawn.

Caisley made the comments in yesterday's Yorkshire Sports, but Hetherington has hit back, dismissing them as "rubbish".

Hetherington challenged Caisley to provide evidence that Leeds had recruited league players from outside their area.

"We do operate the Leeds rugby union academy and we are responsible for the development of elite junior rugby union players throughout Yorkshire, but there is no foundation to suggestions that we are recruiting talented rugby league players from other parts of Yorkshire," said Hetherington.

"We enjoy excellent relationships with all of the junior clubs in our area and we have an excellent track record for developing local talent.

"The Leeds Rhinos first team squad now includes a lot of young, talented local players. We think the system works extremely well. It's fair and it encourages clubs to invest in their locality, rather than simply raping other areas of their talent."

But Hetherington did admit there was nothing to stop young union players switching from the Tykes' academy to rugby league.

"There is now an open gangway between league and union and there are inevitably going to be players who switch over. I see nothing wrong with that. If we have a talented union player who decides to play rugby league, then that's to the benefit of rugby league."

Leeds would not gain an advantage because out of contract union players were free to sign with any league club, said Hetherington.

Spending and recruitment restrictions were not designed to "pull down" the top clubs and there was no danger top players would defect to union if the salary cap was lowered, he said.

"Henry Paul, Jason Robinson and Iestyn Harris weren't lost to rugby union because of the salary cap. They left because rugby union offered them a greater opportunity at international level. That's what we in rugby league need to be striving to improve.

"Since nobody can realistically afford to spend the salary cap of £1.8m it is something of a false figure anyway.

"Rugby league has a great opportunity to move forward in 2004 but it requires the co-operation of all of the clubs. You would hope that all of the clubs, especially the leading clubs, would come together and show the way forward in a co-operative manner."