Wharfedale anger over RFUmoves to lure RL stars

England coach Clive Woodward has already had talks with a handful of leading RL players, supposedly in a sounding out operation set up by an agent for the players, and with Greg McCallum, the Rugby League's Director of Rugby, launching a media campaign to draw attention to this threat, there is obviously some measure of truth to the story.

With even the salaries of Rugby Union players outside the international arena being measured in telephone numbers, however, it is no surprise to hear Harrison among the chorus of genuine RU folk who see this move by the RFU as being seriously misguided.

"I'm sure there is a degree of political posturing involved here," he says: "Maybe someone is trying to put a shot across the bows of some of the senior England players who have started to become more demanding of late in terms of what they should be paid and what their contracts should include.

"Maybe it's simply a warning that no-one is indispensable and that if necessary, an England team might be put together using young players and a sprinkling of RL men if the need arose.

"What concerns me is that somewhere along the way, there must be some sort of budget involved if these stories have any credence and I think that to spend lots of money buying in RL players at the top level would be scandalous in the current climate.

"Let me be clear. I have absolutely no quarrel with RL players changing codes. None at all. If they want to try their hand in the Union game, then that's fine by me. What concerns me is the suggestion that millions of pounds might be spend on such a project when there are so many more urgent needs which the RFU ought to be attending to."

Harrison's criticism is not aimed at getting a better deal for his own club. He sees the urgent need for the RFU to do much more work in schools and in junior clubs to attract young people into the game. If necessary, he would spend the money on supporting some of the academies that are being developed. But simply handing over vast sums to either bolster the England team or even to do a spot of PR work in the North among the Rugby League fraternity at both amateur and professional level, is not the way to go in his view.

"Rugby League does a great deal of work in the youth area and in schools and Rugby Union should be investing more in that type of activity," says Harrison: "There are obviously some very good rugby schools still operating, but in general, rugby is dying in schools and the RFU would be better to support that area of the game than with the short-term thinking of recruiting expensive RL stars."

One of the ironies of the situation, of course, is the hypocrisy of Mr McCallum crying his victimisation story from within a game that has for over a century drawn talent from the Rugby Union game at a steady rate. Players 'going up North' became part of the folklore of Welsh rugby down the years and it is amusing now to see a senior RL figure squealing because the tide had turned, as it was bound to once the RU game went 'open'.

It is also rich that Sir Rodney Walker should offer the view that rugby union has at last acknowledged the calibre of his RL flock. Among with many others, I coulddine out lavishly for many years if I had a pound for every league zealot who has sneered at rugby union and insisted that Batley or Dewsbury would turn over the England side without any trouble.

What is most distressing is the rate at which the lemming-like RFU hierarchy seem intent on following a league blueprint for full-time professionalism that has so manifestly failed.

Harrison will put his anger on hold tomorrow when Wharfedale visit Preston Grasshoppers in the rearrangement of a game frosted off earlier in the season. The Dalesmen intend to use the remaining matches as a vehicle for blooding some of the younger players who have been pressing for a senior outing and Phil Hargreaves gets a chance tomorrow in the back-row alongside Hedley Verity and Russell Buckroyd.

"Paul Evans has been playing some of his best rugby of the season in recent weeks, but he will be retiring from senior rugby at the end of the season and the time is right to give Phil a chance," says Harrison: "We have also brought Carl Burnett onto the bench with a view to giving him a run-out at some stage."

With David Pears rested after suffering another injury last weekend, Neil Heseltine switches to fly-half, with Craig Eccleston taking the wing berth. Elsewhere, the Dalesmen keep the Nottingham squad.

Wharfedale: J. Davies; C. Eccleston, C. Johnston, A. Hodgson, C. Armitage; N. Heseltine, G. Smith; R. Lancaster, J. Lawn, N. Dickinson, D. Lister, A. Capstick, P. Hargreaves, H. Verity, R. Buckroyd. Replacements: C. Burnett, C. Ingram, P. Evans.

oWHARFEDALE pair Carl Burnett and Ryan Gains are in the Yorkshire Under 20 squad for Sunday's County Championship quarter-final against East Midlands at Doncaster.MUCH-PUBLICISED suggestions that the Rugby Union is preparing to launch a multi-million pound recruitment drive in an effort to tempt high-profile Rugby League players into the England team have incensed Wharfedale's Director of Rugby, Michael Harrison.

England coach Clive Woodward has already had talks with a handful of leading RL players, supposedly in a sounding out operation set up by an agent for the players, and with Greg McCallum, the Rugby League's Director of Rugby, launching a media campaign to draw attention to this threat, there is obviously some measure of truth to the story.

With even the salaries of Rugby Union players outside the international arena being measured in telephone numbers, however, it is no surprise to hear Harrison among the chorus of genuine RU folk who see this move by the RFU as being seriously misguided.

"I'm sure there is a degree of political posturing involved here," he says: "Maybe someone is trying to put a shot across the bows of some of the senior England players who have started to become more demanding of late in terms of what they should be paid and what their contracts should include.

"Maybe it's simply a warning that no-one is indispensable and that if necessary, an England team might be put together using young players and a sprinkling of RL men if the need arose.

"What concerns me is that somewhere along the way, there must be some sort of budget involved if these stories have any credence and I think that to spend lots of money buying in RL players at the top level would be scandalous in the current climate.

"Let me be clear. I have absolutely no quarrel with RL players changing codes. None at all. If they want to try their hand in the Union game, then that's fine by me. What concerns me is the suggestion that millions of pounds might be spend on such a project when there are so many more urgent needs which the RFU ought to be attending to."

Harrison's criticism is not aimed at getting a better deal for his own club. He sees the urgent need for the RFU to do much more work in schools and in junior clubs to attract young people into the game. If necessary, he would spend the money on supporting some of the academies that are being developed. But simply handing over vast sums to either bolster the England team or even to do a spot of PR work in the North among the Rugby League fraternity at both amateur and professional level, is not the way to go in his view.

"Rugby League does a great deal of work in the youth area and in schools and Rugby Union should be investing more in that type of activity," says Harrison: "There are obviously some very good rugby schools still operating, but in general, rugby is dying in schools and the RFU would be better to support that area of the game than with the short-term thinking of recruiting expensive RL stars."

One of the ironies of the situation, of course, is the hypocrisy of Mr McCallum crying his victimisation story from within a game that has for over a century drawn talent from the Rugby Union game at a steady rate. Players 'going up North' became part of the folklore of Welsh rugby down the years and it is amusing now to see a senior RL figure squealing because the tide had turned, as it was bound to once the RU game went 'open'.

It is also rich that Sir Rodney Walker should offer the view that rugby union has at last acknowledged the calibre of his RL flock. Among with many others, I coulddine out lavishly for many years if I had a pound for every league zealot who has sneered at rugby union and insisted that Batley or Dewsbury would turn over the England side without any trouble.

What is most distressing is the rate at which the lemming-like RFU hierarchy seem intent on following a league blueprint for full-time professionalism that has so manifestly failed.

Harrison will put his anger on hold tomorrow when Wharfedale visit Preston Grasshoppers in the rearrangement of a game frosted off earlier in the season. The Dalesmen intend to use the remaining matches as a vehicle for blooding some of the younger players who have been pressing for a senior outing and Phil Hargreaves gets a chance tomorrow in the back-row alongside Hedley Verity and Russell Buckroyd.

"Paul Evans has been playing some of his best rugby of the season in recent weeks, but he will be retiring from senior rugby at the end of the season and the time is right to give Phil a chance," says Harrison: "We have also brought Carl Burnett onto the bench with a view to giving him a run-out at some stage."

With David Pears rested after suffering another injury last weekend, Neil Heseltine switches to fly-half, with Craig Eccleston taking the wing berth. Elsewhere, the Dalesmen keep the Nottingham squad.

Wharfedale: J. Davies; C. Eccleston, C. Johnston, A. Hodgson, C. Armitage; N. Heseltine, G. Smith; R. Lancaster, J. Lawn, N. Dickinson, D. Lister, A. Capstick, P. Hargreaves, H. Verity, R. Buckroyd. Replacements: C. Burnett, C. Ingram, P. Evans.

oWHARFEDALE pair Carl Burnett and Ryan Gains are in the Yorkshire Under 20 squad for Sunday's County Championship quarter-final against East Midlands at Doncaster.