Scotland Rugby League (SRL) chiefs have accepted that their union counterparts' greater spending power may mean that New Zealand international Kevin Locke will cross codes rather than joining their ranks but they already have plans in place to recruit another top class antipodean full-back.
It emerged last month that Locke, who faced Scotland in the 2013 Rugby League World Cup quarter-final, was considering switching allegiances, but the Scottish Rugby Union is reportedly now in discussion with the 25-year-old.
Since Locke's form has not been as impressive as was expected when he joined Salford Red Devils, HeraldSport understands that the SRL had already been continuing to try to widen their options and have revived interest in North Queensland Cowboy Lachlan Coote.
The 24-year-old had been in contention for a Scotland place in 2013 before withdrawing on leaving former club Penrith Panthers to join the Cowboys just ahead of the tournament and he was reported locally as saying, come the quarter-finals: "I am a bit jealous. I wanted to play the World Cup for Scotland, but my focus is on North Queensland."
A knee injury prevented him from playing last season, but he is poised to make his overdue Cowboys debut and the hope within SRL is that once established in their ranks the carrot of involvement in next year's glamorous Four Nations tournament with Australia, England and New Zealand, as well as the 2017 World Cup in Australia, will prove enticing.
That would bring added class to a squad that is growing in quality as demonstrated in a recently conducted inventory of Scottish-qualified professional players.
It included three other Australian-based NRL players, Coote's Cowboys clubmate Kane Linnett, Panthers play-maker Peter Wallace and Gold Coast Titan Kane Douglas, all of whom performed impressively for Scotland at the 2013 World Cup, as well as 11 Super League players.
The full list is:
NRL
Luke Douglas (Gold Coast Titans); Kane Linnett (North Queensland Cowboys); Peter Wallace (Penrith Panthers)
SUPER LEAGUE
Danny Brough, Joe Brough, (both Huddersfield Giants), Sonny Esslemont, Adam Walker (both Hull KR), Lee Gilmour (Wakefield Wildcats), Richard Harris, James Jones, Matty Russell (all Warrington Wolves) , Ian Henderson (Catalans Dragons), Liam Hood (Salford Red Devils), Ben Kavanagh (Widnes Vikings)
CHAMPIONSHIP
Danny Addy, Dale Ferguson (both Bradford Bulls), Josh Barlow (Dewsbury Rams), Sam Barlow (Leigh Centurions), Harvey Burnett (London Broncos), Brett Carter, Brett Phillips, Callum Phillips (all Workington Town), Ben Hellewell, Oscar Thomas, Alex Walker (all London Broncos), Gareth Moore (Featherstone Rovers), David Scott (Doncaster), Mitch Stringer (Sheffield Eagles), Jonathan Walker, Oliver Wilkes (both Leigh Centurions)
LEAGUE ONE
Mike Benson, Louie Sutherland (both London Skolars), James Houston (Hunslet Hawks), Alex Hurst, Mick Nanyn (both Swinton Lions), Joe McLean (Univ Gloucs All Golds), Iain Morrison (York City Knights), Jordan Rice (Oxford), Mike Stewart (Hemel Stags), Jack Stewart (York City Knights), Shane Toal (Barrow Raiders) Louis Senter (Gloucestershire All Golds), Josh Stoker, Stephen Welton (both Gateshead Thunder)
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article