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Wrexham is only about 5 miles from the border with England, almost all of their players are English and come from SL academies or heartland amateur clubs. South Wales on the other hand is very isolated and their squad is pretty much 100% homegrown.
Not really, Crusaders happen to be based over the border in a different country but they would still be a lot closer and more accessible to players from the heartlands than say Cumbria would be. It's only 40 minutes drive to Warrington and about an hour to Wigan/Leigh. They aren't much different from the likes of Rochdale or Swinton really, barely any of those type of clubs develop their own players because they don't need to and most of them can't afford to. Crusaders can barely afford to pay their first team players at the moment. North Wales has a lot more in common with the North of England than it does with South Wales anyway, people from North Wales don't even sound Welsh or really identify with Welsh culture in the same way.
I wonder if Ireland would've used as many domestic players had they been grouped with Italy?
