THE fruits of York Wasps' French connection may have dried up - for the time being at least - as the club consider scrapping plans to bring in flair from across the Channel.

The Wasps had been hopeful of recruiting a number of French-based players to bolster their squad but, because of the time it has taken to seal the deals, the club have altered their sights.

The Wasps have already turned their attention to home-grown players and if this new recruitment policy is successful, the French players may not be chased up.

"The situation with the French-based players is that until their clubs get knocked out of the Challenge Cup they will not be allowed to leave," said chief executive Ann Garvey.

"Because it has taken so long - something we were not aware of at the time when York agreed to take the players - we are now looking at it in a different light.

"We have one or two players in mind that we need to speak to and if we sign them or get new players we're looking at, we would have to look again at the situation regarding the French players."

Ben Sorbello and Michael Grady both joined from clubs across the Channel, but the likes of Michael Cousseau and Chris St Clair, plus an unnamed France international, are yet to arrive, despite being touted.

The Challenge Cup third round ties do not take place until the end of January, with the fourth and fifth rounds both in February, and if the players were to join up it would not be until around that time.

"We would look again, when they become free, at whether we would want to take them," added Garvey.

"It depends on who we sign, if anyone, in the next few weeks. I'm not saying the French-based players won't be coming but similarly I can't say they will definitely be coming."

Updated: 11:15 Thursday, January 03, 2002