2nd year U16's are strong, 9 players from Kippax and 5 from Lock Lane, all the best players from the best 2 teams in Yorkshire, players to look out for:

Robin Smith - Prop
Jack Mears - 13/6
Brennen Townend - Back Row
Jacob Tooala -
Sonny Hetherington - /Fullback


With quite a few more good prospects

1st year U15's, really strange intake, with just 6 of the 20 actually playing in the top division of the Yorkshire League, the other 14 scattered between divisions 2 and 4 and RU. Quite a few of the obvious better players in the Yorkshire league are crossing the penines to Wigan/Warrington etc, on the surface, it looks like we've missed on quite a few. Some could be decisions on what the club think they can become, rather than what they are now, but know we missed on one with big potential who chose Huddersfield over us.

The best U14 team in this age group are West Hull, but we dont seem to look anywhere other than our doorstep these days, which is really dissapointing, Kells U14 in Cumbria are a great team, with lads going to Wigan/Warrington, who recruit from all the hotbeds, but we dont bother. On a side note, the Scholarship players of the year at Saints and Warrington were lads from Siddal

But yeah, apologies for waffling on, strange, but interesting, intake of first years this year

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