One of our Irish RU imports. Number 11 for U20s on Friday and he is a unit. Scored a try as well. But I've seen him in a couple of games and he looks to just trundle the the ball in and turn (a la RU/Paul Clough style). Hope he grows out of this because he has the build to be one hell of a prop. He must be nearly 7ft.

If he keeps playing and improving we might have one tank of a prop. (hallelujah)

Funnily enough, Id just come on to aks about them.

Remembered about them this morning and wondered because I hadnt heard anything more after their signing.

Sounds good

Did you get a good look at Cross? I saw that he was named in the side as well.

Its like the Brotherton shenanigans last year when because certain fans heard we had signed a fast lad they wanted him in the team, regardless of how he was actually acquitting himself. Now we sign two lads from that exotic far away place called Ireland, and people are getting all in a tiz about them.

The harsh reality is that these two irish lads would not even be being talked about if they were from St.Helens.

I thought he look pretty crap when I seen him. He's sluggish and can't run.

Who? Brotherton?

No, the Irish giant.

The thing with Brotherton was the write ups he was getting. It seemed from the match reports that he was terrorising teams and scoring 2-3 tries a week, often from distance.

To b fair, no one's really talking about Cross. McClosky gets extra attention because he's frickin huge, so people assume he's got potential.

I don't understand the negativity on here. Brian Carney wasn't a proper league player when Gateshead snapped him up, didn't stop him being one of the best in the world by his peak.

No reason why either of these players couldn't make it to the first team.

Both McCloskey and Cross were picked up during a development camp in Limerick last year for the Irish Wolfhounds. There were a number of clubs in attendance including Wigan and of course the Irish coach Mark Aston who also coaches Sheffield Eagles. These two lads were very appreciative of the opportunity they were getting from Saints and aware of the huge step up in standard they would be making. Watching these two last year as well as a number of other Union lads trying their hand at league really showed how different the two games are and what issues they face in trying to adapt. I really hope they have some success and Saints get some reward for taking them on.

Fassavalu took 3 yrs to start playing well for Saints:?: not even playing well just getting into the first team