THE Leigh area produces more top rugby league talent than any other area of the country.

That's the finding of a brand-new poll conducted by the Rugby Football League into the career origins of the British-born Super League full-time professional players.

RFL officers discovered that the Leigh and Wigan hotbed has supplied the most players listed by Tetley's Super League clubs for the 2002 campaign that kicks off on March 1.

First time

According to the playing register held at the RFL's Red Hall headquarters in Leeds 43 of the British-born Super League professionals came into contact with the sport for the first time in the game's service area centred on Leigh and Wigan. A service area is the body usually centred on a metropolitan or local government district where everybody connected with the game co-ordinates the development of young talent and the sport within their own area.

Yorkshire has two major hot spots of talent with the Wakefield service area which includes Castleford, Featherstone and Wakefield supplying 37 players to the elite league and the City of Leeds 23.

Andy Harland, Rugby League's National Development Manager, says: "We needed to know which Service Areas are the most effective at developing elite full-time professional talent so that we had a base-line figure from which to work for the future.

"At the same time it was important to discover which of the service areas needed more help with elite player development."