Oh I forgot, the Wigan U20's also have a game today which takes precedence.

But if they all played on Wednesday and there's this 5 day rule how can they play today?

Because it suits them. They want the best of both worlds!

At Under 18 level.

But stupidly the rules allow them to play at first team and U18/U20 on the same weekend.

We won both Under 18s games last season.

Ah, I see. I presume that excuse would have been acceptable if Saints had been unable to field a team?

Poor show from Wigan if they can't field two junior teams on the same day.

It is not as though their First team is full of Under 20s

They should know the rules they are operating under

Farrell and Tuson played last night.
Charnley played tonight
Davies, Ainscough and Marsh will probably all play tomorrow.

Logan Tomkins, Dom Crosby, John Walker and Joe Mellor are out injured, and have to be replaced by U18 players. who under the rules cannot play. Please give me your solution.

I don't do excuses but try to give a reasoned approach.
You should try it some time.

It was indeed, Wakefield couldn't field a team for that fixture and as a result the U18 fixture has suffered.

Could you play u16's at u18 level?

It would never happen at Super League level regardless of injury situations you'd have to loan Paul Highton and Dave Whittle and get slapped!! It is reasonable of us to rearrange and you should of course let saints win as a matter of course

Are you sure you are not making this up?
I know some of the things the RFL are strange but this sounds a bit unbelievable.

I heard that when we allow a duel reg player to play on a Thursday night in the championship they can't play for us that weekend. Yet they allow young lads to play two under 20's games in the same week when they are under 18.

It's true Bradford did it last season. I think it was Donaldson.

welcome to the wonderful world of the RFL

If you look at the rules, the RFL say they cannot play in both Academy competitions in the same week.

I suspect the logic behind this is to ensure clubs have sufficent players to field two sides without them having to double up across 18 and 20.

Wigan are not the only club with injuries across their three teams some are in a worse position nor are they the only loaning out players.

It is down to the club to manage their players and if Wigan choose to loan out some of them then they should ensure they can fulfill their own commitments first.

Speaking off injuries and not being able to field a team...our 18s and 20s(saints) have a lot of lads missing who are usually in the starting line ups...speaking to one of the dads at thatto last nite and he sed at least 10 Lads are injured and cannot play!!! Saying this tho, I dont c us cancelling games...... just out of intrest how did our lads go on against the pies earlier in the season never watched any of our acadamy games againsy them.

The solution is simple and clear, stop ALL clubs, not just Wigan,, from farming out their players to other teams for experience.
All clubs should develope their own talent, It does benefit the players in question, but it must be a sickener for the player who loses his place to accommodate the loanee, We will never catch up the Aussies without all teams having a developement programme instead of just 2/3 teams having a progressive policy.
The Under 20s and 18s leagues, as you have previously indicated Rogues, are a joke, with very little real competition for that particular age group with overage and underage playing in the same team. Rant over

If ALL teams were producing strong academy teams John I would agree.
Sadly it's not happening. I really don't see the point in a team winning by 50 or 60 points. It does no good to either team.

I don't know what the solution is, unless you allow to better U20 sides to play in NL1 or NL2, but that would cause major problems. My friends and myself have discussed this topic for many hours without resolution.

BTW Wigan U20's beat Hull 14 - 8 at Hull yesterday.

It would be penalising the successful clubs to keep them in a competition they cannot further develop in and the step up as a result would see talented players struggle to adapt where a couple of months in the Championship Leagues would undoubtedly help, but then too many loanees doesn't give the championship long term benefits with consistent massive squad turnover and experienced semi pro's being shoved out to fit another promising junior.

However judging by how long its taken the top teams to get to this stage (Wigan, Saints and I believe Warrington are seeing the first fruits from theirs) a fully competitive competition is going to be 10+ years off and that is if every team ploughs money into it now and do we think that will happen? We still haven't got to a fully competitive Super League...

Times must be hard if they have taken to having ago at our 18s!!

It directly affected the Saints club, that's why it was posted here!!!!!

It would have been posted had it not been Wigan too!

Paranoid much?

And you were given the reason why we couldnt play and still werent happy!! Not to mention a comment about us only playing over age players in the 18s and 20s which had nothing to do with the saints!! So paranoid no!

rfl should show some balls and fine them but they love wigan so they wont