Ive not been able to get to the games how did it go against Saints

Out played lost heavily.

please tell more
who played ect

Have the U20's won a game yet this season?

No.

I assume you watch them, because you do post alot about the U20's, and seem very knowledgable on them.

So, results aside, how have performances been? Looking at the lads who are just off the first team like Donaldson, Briggs, Bateman, are they looking competitive enough?

Is it a case of the lads they are signing and they set up not being as good as they'd have you believe?

Bateman was at Centre, he is not a Centre, he is a Second Row/Loose Forward.

I'm wondering that too.

An awful lot has been made over the past few years about the youth set up, about how it was going to pay dividends with a steady stream of talent.

I wouldn't expect, that being the case, to see the U20s getting beaten week in week out. I realise that its not simply about results with the U20s, but St Helens managed to play a number of young lads in their team this week, yet still put out an U20s team that hammered us. And, again, in the Cas game, they played a number of players who were under 20 in their 1st team, yet still had enough talented players to beat us.

I can't help wondering if some of the guys are not all that we've been told they are.

Whos played stand off and full back loads of times.

I wanted to watch this game but the supporters coaches didn't turn on time again

Stand off and Full Back are completly different to Centre.

The squad the Bulls U20's have is a good one, however maybe it's a case of gelling, one week no Addy the next no O'Brien. Very unsettled in my opinion.

The vast majority of the side has been the same every week.

Hence the word maybe -_-

While I'm not making excuses for the poor results the under 20s have been having, consider the players that are now missing from our under 20s side for one reason or another:

Crookes (Sheff)
Finnigan (Sheff)
Hellewell (Wire)
Wardle (Hudds)
G Burgess (Souths)
Olbison (1st team)

Should be doing a bit better than this but remember it's not so much about results as it is providing good players for the 1st team. So far Olbison has come in and looked the part this year so I've no complaints.

This is what Medley said at the fans forum - although you'd hope they start to win a few. From watching the Bull builder the U20 Cas game looked well winnable but thats from the highlights

It was a good game, although when I've seen the U20's this year I seem to get the impression they can't tackle!!

They let teams escape their 20-30m try time far too easily, when a team goes wide, they struggle to slide and they concede "schoolboy" tries.

I think the gulf between U20's and SL is pretty clear for all to see, i wasn't bothered about letting players go out on duel registrations but my mind has changed on that this season, as it must be a step up!

Taken from here: www.therfl.co.uk/matchday/results/report?6468 St Helens 36 T: Makinson 2, Atherton, Eastmond, Thompson, Jones G: Makinson 6 Bradford Bulls 14 T: Bateman, Hawthorne, Straughan G: Addy H.T. 24-0 St. Helens : Tommy Johnson; Simon Atherton, Josh Jones, Tommy Makinson, Dan Brotherton; Kyle Eastmond, Ben Karalius; Jordan Hand, Aaron Lloyd, Warren Thompson, Andrew Dixon, Danny Jones, Jordan Case. Subs. Marcus Baines, Joe Bate, Anthony Walker, Joe Greenwood. Bradford : Kyle Williamson; Ethan Hawksworth, John Bateman, Rob Hawthorne, Lewis Straughan; Kyle Briggs, Cain Southernwood; Tom Burgess, Adam O’Brien, Steve Crossley, Iain Sibbitt, James Donaldson, Danny Addy. Subs. Tom Lillycrop, Liam McKay, Lewis Reid, Callum Windley.

Taken from here: www.therfl.co.uk/matchday/results/report?6468 St Helens 36 T: Makinson 2, Atherton, Eastmond, Thompson, Jones G: Makinson 6 Bradford Bulls 14 T: Bateman, Hawthorne, Straughan G: Addy H.T. 24-0 St. Helens : Tommy Johnson; Simon Atherton, Josh Jones, Tommy Makinson, Dan Brotherton; Kyle Eastmond, Ben Karalius; Jordan Hand, Aaron Lloyd, Warren Thompson, Andrew Dixon, Danny Jones, Jordan Case. Subs. Marcus Baines, Joe Bate, Anthony Walker, Joe Greenwood. Bradford : Kyle Williamson; Ethan Hawksworth, John Bateman, Rob Hawthorne, Lewis Straughan; Kyle Briggs, Cain Southernwood; Tom Burgess, Adam O’Brien, Steve Crossley, Iain Sibbitt, James Donaldson, Danny Addy. Subs. Tom Lillycrop, Liam McKay, Lewis Reid, Callum Windley.

Quote ="Blotto"Taken from here: www.therfl.co.uk/matchday/results/report?6468 St Helens 36 T: Makinson 2, Atherton, Eastmond, Thompson, Jones G: Makinson 6 Bradford Bulls 14 T: Bateman, Hawthorne, Straughan G: Addy H.T. 24-0 St. Helens : Tommy Johnson; Simon Atherton, Josh Jones, Tommy Makinson, Dan Brotherton; Kyle Eastmond, Ben Karalius; Jordan Hand, Aaron Lloyd, Warren Thompson, Andrew Dixon, Danny Jones, Jordan Case. Subs. Marcus Baines, Joe Bate, Anthony Walker, Joe Greenwood. Bradford : Kyle Williamson; Ethan Hawksworth, John Bateman, Rob Hawthorne, Lewis Straughan; Kyle Briggs, Cain Southernwood; Tom Burgess, Adam O’Brien, Steve Crossley, Iain Sibbitt, James Donaldson, Danny Addy. Subs. Tom Lillycrop, Liam McKay, Lewis Reid, Callum Windley.'" to be fair 7 of them are pushing for the 1st team..... not looking to good

Quote ="Blotto"Taken from here: www.therfl.co.uk/matchday/results/report?6468 St Helens 36 T: Makinson 2, Atherton, Eastmond, Thompson, Jones G: Makinson 6 Bradford Bulls 14 T: Bateman, Hawthorne, Straughan G: Addy H.T. 24-0 St. Helens : Tommy Johnson; Simon Atherton, Josh Jones, Tommy Makinson, Dan Brotherton; Kyle Eastmond, Ben Karalius; Jordan Hand, Aaron Lloyd, Warren Thompson, Andrew Dixon, Danny Jones, Jordan Case. Subs. Marcus Baines, Joe Bate, Anthony Walker, Joe Greenwood. Bradford : Kyle Williamson; Ethan Hawksworth, John Bateman, Rob Hawthorne, Lewis Straughan; Kyle Briggs, Cain Southernwood; Tom Burgess, Adam O’Brien, Steve Crossley, Iain Sibbitt, James Donaldson, Danny Addy. Subs. Tom Lillycrop, Liam McKay, Lewis Reid, Callum Windley.'" to be fair 7 of them are pushing for the 1st team..... not looking to good

I'd say at least 9 would be fighting for a first team place out of that squad.

The more interesting observation one could make, is when a new Coach comes in they may change the way the teams play by altering the systems of play from the previous Coach which I suspect is the case here, while the the first team squad have had the intensity of pre season to come to grips with the changes, the Academy sides are going to take longer. That said, I would say Royce Simmons hasn't changed too much of what Mick Potter had in place at Stains and that would make it easier all round for them!

Not true actually. Under Potter, even when we had our first choice halfbacks on the pitch, we tended to attack down the middle quite a lot and score many of our tries from within 10m. It became utterly tedious towards the end of the 2009 season. We have been changing in that direction, in spite of our halfback issues, since Simmons took over. We are passing the ball wide more often now, although it is going to take time for the team to readjust.

Simmons has also made it a goal to return our defence to a maximum of around 16 points conceded. We had a terrible defence (for us I mean) by the time last season came around. It was the fourth worst in the league but coming from our starting point it was a massive difference.

In addition, Simmons has trimmed us down considerably. Some of our players have stated in the press this season that Potter liked bulk and some players were uncomfortable with that. Not being the fastest team in the league, the extra weight some of our players were carrying really caused problems last season. In our first friendly, against Widnes, one of the things all fans noticed straight away was how much fitter we appeared and how much more toned. This has led to us no longer giving away points in the second half due to being knackered (and all but James Roby - who is a freak of nature - used to [ilook[/i knackered too).

If you filter those changes down to the u21s, which is what normally happens as I understand it, then there will be changes to our team since Potter's day.

TBH i find this is trotted out when the U20's team isn't doing so well. If you look at the two teams in the league with the most youngsters in their respective squads both have been the stand out junior sides the last few years.

This is worrying, as we need to be break even on points difference to get into the playoffs, and while we are scoring points and can only improve on that when the half backs have had time to gel, equally defence has to improve - and that means right from the start ie academy and U20s