Yes. Clough is cut from the same cloth as Stankevitch/Jonkers/Dwyer. Hard-working, good defence, not very big and not very fast, not likely to make many tackle busts or offload at all.

He's good at what he does, but every club with a decent academy has its own supply of Cloughs, and he wouldn't command much interest outside the bottom end of the table or the championship.

Well, they can't just have him sit in the reserves for another season. Either Meli's going without a replacement,meaning armstrong's bumped up the pecking order 1, or they intend on him going on loan to kick on, i would hope.

I would think he could do a job for a SL team, and if Chirs Dean can get a contract, i don't see why no one would be interested in Armstrong.

Lomax is the best player at the club. Anybody who can't see what great potential that lad as needs there head shaking!

The coaching staff at Saints cant speak highly enough of him!

like they did when they told you we were shipping off Armstrong



I think Jonny has a lot of potential, just needs an injury free run/season!

exactly, if he was a foot taller and a bit faster he could be something special - as it is he is a hard working, reliable, rarely makes mistakes, but doesnt do anything amazing.

Good squad player, but I doubt there was much interest in him from clubs other than the usual Salford, Quins and Wakey.

That's our mantra at the moment. It could be applied to every one of our players, bar Jamie Foster who I dont think has been injured.

Didn't he play all season requiring a hernia operation or did I make that up?

The club never told me anything about Armstrong. I speak to Tom personaly and the lad was ready to give up Saints. He was sick of playing U20s.

So I presumed he'd leave. The one year deal is probably while he finishes his studies.

Wonder if this will mean Ade's on his way ?? wont be gutted if he does.

Feel free to shake my head.

I want to believe this, but I've not seen anything yet other than a nippy small lad who doesn't really play the organisaing role which nippy small lads usually do on a field (Eastmond, Tomkins etc).

But, and it's a big but, I only get to see televised games, so I haven't seen him play much this year, so it may well be that he does great things week-in week-out in the games I can't watch.

That was a rumour but there wasn't anything about it on Saints website, and they have been keeping us up to date with the myriad injuries our squad has suffered. However, hernias can be there from birth so it won't necessarily have anything to do with the rugby. And he has continued playing since he broke into the first team.

No. Wheeler (who's he?) is the best player at the club and he will show it next year, injury free permitting.

It was in one of the Saints programmes in an interview with him (Foster). He said he had a hernia and had passed over the kicking in the acadamy to Gaskell (i think it was ). He had to kick for the first team as Eastmond was in and out with injury and couldn't be risked kicking in case he aggravated his injury.

In terms of talent, Lomax is rated at least as highly as Eastmond by the coaching team. IMO he needs to establish (or be given) a position to make his own - the utility role is great for the club, but can restrict a player's development in a "jack of all trades" kind of way.

No disrespect meant to him, but he's hiding it well. He looks alright, he looks borderline talented at times, but he has no real speed and has never done anything remarkable so far. Eastmond has provided several 'wow' moments already.

And he's done it from different positions, like centre.
I like lomax. I think he'll go well for us, but he's perhaps come in at a time when the teams slightly more disjointed than when Eastmond appeared.

Ah, I see. I don't buy programmes (except for the last match at KR!) so I didn't see that.

I know from the experience with a relative who has recently had a hernia removed that if a hernia is not bothering a person then the medics leave it in place. People can carry on with their normal lives with hernias. However, if it starts to become a problem then they are removed. Maybe his will be dealt with during the off-season. It could be quite a few weeks recovery time where he won't be able to do anything, much less play rugby, depending on whether the hernia is embedded in the muscle.

He was in the final three for young player of the year this year, which I think speaks volumes given his intermittent time on the pitch and the many different positions he played.

I hope our new coach will give him a secure spot for next season so that we can all find out what he can do. He definitely looks promising.

If im not mistaken i believe he has signed for salford. Im sure i saw that somewhere

Just a rumour at the minute, although the rumours seem to be getting louder.

So far as Foster is concerned, I'd kind of like to see him have a go at fullback sometime. He has great positional sense already, is not afraid to clear up messes, he is nippy, he can get round players and he is good defensively. He can also boot a ball up the pitch so he would do great dropouts. Granted, he may be a little skinny at present but nontheless it would be interesting to see how he performs in the position.

I think, although primerily a centre, they moved him to full back for the U20s a few months before he started to get 1st team action. Also, I don't think he looks as skinny now as he did when he started and he's reasonably tall, so hopefully that shouldn't cause him too many problems as we go along.

A good call, but I still think I'd prefer Lomax there as he appears to be more of an elusive runner than Foster.

Just skimmed though this thread,

seems some people are doubting the talent of Lomax?
Clear as day to me this kid could be a huge star, up there with Easymond in my opinion.

Cloughy also has huge potential I think as a prop.

Do we have anyone who has played at fullback for the acadamy?

I believe we having a rising talent at fullback called Nathan Ashe. When i've seen him play he looks devestating. He's 18 i think so i'm not sure how far off he is in terms of playing first team. Anybody more in the know with the academy/ u18's shed any light?