Fledgling Welsh rugby league club Celtic Crusaders face starting their first season in Britain's Super League without eight Australian-based players who are still waiting for visas.

Crusaders coach John Dixon hopes the red tape can be cut by the time the Crusaders take on World Club Challenge champions Leeds Rhinos in their season opener at Headingley on February 6.

"In an ideal world you'd want all 25 members of your squad together preparing for the season," Dixon said.

"We're doing all we can to get around it, training hard with the guys who are here, and making sure the players still in Australia are preparing as best they can.

"They are all on conditioning programmes, and they have each been designated to train with an Australian club to keep their hand in."

Tightened UK immigration procedures, which came into effect last November, have been blamed for the delay at the British consulate in Canberra.

As a result, former NRL players Josh Hannay, Darren Mapp and Ryan O'Hara have been unable to join their team-mates since a three-week training camp in Queensland before Christmas.

Also delayed are captain Jace Van Dijk, Tony Duggan, who qualifies to play for Wales this year, Mark Dalle Cort, who has played for St George Illawarra and North Queensland's second grade sides, and 2008 National League One player of the year Damien Quinn.

Papua New Guinea international Jason Chan, who is at Penrith's feeder club, Windsor Wolves, is also awaiting a visa.

Dixon was confident the necessary paperwork for all players would be granted eventually.

"Our guys all have the approval of the Rugby Football League to get a work permit," he said.

"It's not a case of if, we just don't know when. It could be today.

"But whatever happens, we'll still be up at Leeds in February with the strongest team we can."

Several other clubs are reported to have been affected by the new immigration rules, but none as badly as the Crusaders, whose football manager Anthony Seibold recently defended the club's Australian recruitment policy.

Just a handful of their squad were born in Wales, where rugby reigns supreme over league.

"The Welsh presence at Super League level will be a gradual one and one that increases over time, not overnight," Seibold told Sky Sports last week.

"We will always look for quality out of the north.

"But we wanted to recruit players who we know had been developed the right way and through systems we thought could add something to the development of our young players here in Wales."

The club, based in Bridgend in South Wales, won a licence from the Rugby Football League last year to join Super League from 2009-11.

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