Something's gone desperately wrong somewhere. At half back we've got Sinfield, who debuted in 2022. Before that the last Academy halfback to play first team was Lilley way back in 2015. Compare that to players who have come through almost every other club in the same time and its embarrassing. A club with our resources can only produce two halfbacks in ten years, one of whom was never good enough and the other yet to really look like the real deal?

It does look finally as though we're starting to see progress with the lads breaking into the first team this year. But if there's one lesson it surely has to be you cannot stop prioritising juniors. There is no harm in finding a Luke Gale even while you have Sinfield, Burrow and McGuire ahead of them. There definitely is harm in good players retiring and not even a glimmer of a replacement coming through.

I used to work with someone who ended up at Headingley his brother is the kit man.
Nice fella part of his job talent spotting youngsters.
Only problem he did not drive.

How do we rate our forward pack heading into the new season. Potential starting pack: 8. Jay Oladipupo 9. Harvey Butterworth 10. Joe Butterfield 11. Jacob Stead 12. Zak Lloyd 13. Presley Cassell

[quote="The Eclipse":28khz4d6]How do we rate our forward pack heading into the new season. Potential starting pack: 8. Jay Oladipupo 9. Harvey Butterworth 10. Joe Butterfield 11. Jacob Stead 12. Zak Lloyd 13. Presley Cassell[/quote:28khz4d6] Extremely talented pack, if developed correctly, should be the best pack in Academy rugby, by a distance. But there lies the problem, development. Mentioned in the pre-season thread, i cant believe the lack of physical development these second year academy lads look to have had over the last 12 month, granted thats the backs, but they looked tiny, like they hadnt been in a gym for the last year. Fortunately, the packs got plenty of natural size 7.Smith 6.Brown Two quality halfs, with Jacob Hardy, who can play backrow, 6 or centre, potentially the best player out of all of them, to fit in somewhere aswel.

Yeah to be honest I thought the young backs who played on Boxing Day looked tiny which is worry in the modern game. Agree the halves look an exciting pair but do we have any big centres coming through ?

[quote="The Eclipse":2abd689r]Yeah to be honest I thought the young backs who played on Boxing Day looked tiny which is worry in the modern game. Agree the halves look an exciting pair but do we have any big centres coming through ?[/quote:2abd689r] Jacob Tooala and sonny Hetherington are both in their 2nd year of Scholarship this coming season, both among the best in the country in their age group, both play centre for their community clubs. Both got good builds, Hetherington in particular, he's well over 6ft already