Thing is, if you have the wrong people in the wrong positions then your going to run into self made problems down the line.

We went away from a winning formula, appointing the best we could find regardless of club affiliation etc into a "Jobs for the boys" mentality, now were having our backsides tickled due to this. It been a sword of Damocles problem for many a year as many with greater expertise and insight have constantly maligned and opined.

No disrespect / arrogance implied but we are supposed to be one of the biggest teams in the country, if we want to get to the top consistently and dare I say "cost effectively" then this will only occur (with current salary cap rules etc) with a strong academy pipeline and excellent coaching / scouting respectively.
If this means we have to go to another team and poach / entice them then so be it, we should always be looking to surpass our rivals not catch up / draw level. The coaching side is where the real bang for the buck is, there's no salary cap and we shouldn't scrimp on this side. Go out and get the best we possibly can.

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