I think you answered you own question. No body knows because someone has come on here and started a thread based on what they heard from an undisclosed source.

A number of fans have taken the chance to call foul and claim double standards. I doubt many of the posters who have said that this is wrong really care if their team has a scholarship program.

In the end there is a lot of effort from the RFL going into raising the standards of Superleague and maybe there should be equal efforts into the Championship. It is hard to see how a Championship team can aim to get a licence when the difference between the two competitions (on and off the field) is getting so wide.

For professional sides in this country it is. Professional clubs should aim to be the best that they can be. I just feel that the point in a scolarship is to train for a job. If there is likely to be no job at the end of it then it is harmful.



That is what ameteur clubs are for. If a child doesn't want to play professionally they there is no need to join a scholarship. They should just enjoy playing for their amateur club.

I don't think they are allowed to run an U18s, even if they could afford it

7 pages and not a shred of evidence.

The U18s thing is between Leigh and the RFL and goes back a couple of years I think. As for evidence, the RFL only publish what they want people to hear. They also decide who they want in SL and design the criteria to fit the purpose. They must think we are stupid. I hope you don't follow the pattern of HKR when you rise to SL, reckon they will announce (already suggested at the back end of last year) debts of £2M over the last 4 years. No way to run a business. Your views on Leigh are well known to me, if in fact it was you that wrote a particularly biased article in the rugby press a few years ago.

Hope you have your blinkers for SL as you are encouraged to forget anything that exists outside those ivory towers.

There is a scholarship programme called AASE (Advanced Academy for Sporting Excellence) which funds elite athletes through college, and must include an elite performance playing environment. In RL, this is being taken to require playing opportunities in the SL Academy, and as such is restricted to SL clubs. It's being rolled out in the new academic year. It's externally funded, though the RFL sets the criteria by which it's awarded, because the RFL is responsible for quality control and is externally monitored.

TASS scholarships have been cut by the new government, though I think they all went into the Student RL anyway, mostly through the Super 8 clubs. I'm not aware there's any other RFL funded or administered scholarship programmes.

The performance pathways that the RFL has set up under Barrie-Jon Mather are the envy of other sports (and are a significant part of the reason why Vinny Webb, Head of Coaching & Performance at the RFL, won the National Coach Educator of the Year award. This has a Regional Player Development Camp at the top of the tree, with Service area squads underneath it, (players can only be at one level, but can move between them as the Talent ID and Coaching teams feel is appropriate for player development). The emphasis on the elite camps is on technique and talent development, and not 'simply' competition, which is in part to error-correct against the age-bias that appears in all youth development programmes (which, across sports, means that 50%+ of the 'talent' junior squads have their birthdays in the first 3 months of the academic year... they are the bigger kids, so get picked, so get better coaching, so are favoured throughout the system if its based on picking a winning team at under 12...). See Malcolm Gladwell's book 'Outliers' for a good explanation of this in detail.

I've no idea what prompted this thread, if it doesn't relate to the above. I do know that the RFL is regarded as the leading sport in youth talent ID and development.

As a separate, side issue, Leigh suffers from two things... first, it has two exceptional amateur clubs who do most of the youth development, and who both perform at the highest levels of the National Youth League. The pro club, then, doesn't run, or take credit for, these structures.

Second, because the 'Wigan and Leigh' service area follows the Local Government boundaries, Leigh Centurions are not the top of the development pyramid even in their own area. Its probably worse for Leigh than it is for, say, the three Calderdale clubs, because Wigan are so impressively well structured for their youth and academy teams.

Even without the service area setup, Wigan tend to hoover up talent when kids turn 17, just as they signed Denis Betts and Ian Gildart from Leigh Rangers back in my age-group (and, at Colts level, Sean Tyrer and Sean Devine from Rangers, and John Thursfield from Woolston, even though those three eventually signed pro at Widnes, Saints and Warrington respectively).

If anyone can provide a concrete example of something they've had to stop doing, or that they want to do and are forbidden, then I can look into it. But it does amaze me sometimes that there's a working assumption from many posters that any kind of rumour or half-tale is instantly accepted as more evidence that the RFL is rubbish. We really are the envy of, and a model for, most other sports, especially in our Coaching and Performance Pathways.

I repeat that Arthur Thomas and Ian Millward said this at a ISA meeting . THE RFL sneaked the further additions to apply for a License just a few week ago, so watch this space I say, as why would our chairman lie?

Which is what? Nobody yet has actually said what they're alleged to have told the meeting. Certainly, we're still waiting on someone (maybe someone who was at the meeting?) to answer this









Why would Ian Milward lie on GMR? Because if both reports are true, he either lied at the meeting or on the radio. Of course, it could be the case that what he said at the meeting is being misreported …

I've asked the question , when I get the answer , I'll post it on here

As for ' someone at the meeting ' , well several who were there have already posted , as for Basil's interview on GMR , that does contradict what he said at the meeting , so hopefully in a day or two I'll have a definate

Just for the record , it is highly unlikely the RFL would provide ' evidence ' of something like this in the form of a press release , so I doubt I will have enough ' evidence for some

Anybody take out a tax efficient savings account in the end?

I'm not sure the additions were sneaked in. The Halifax chairman was talking about the minimum numbers a few months back. SOC has been talking from a while now about the criteria that needed to be met in order to apply without specifically mentioning what they were. I'm pretty sure in one meeting he mentioned that he had attended a meeting where this had been presented to all the Championship Chairmen.
It leaves a nasty taste in my mouth to defend the RFL but it does seem that the Championship clubs were told about these criteria some time ago. Unless there really is a vendetta against Leigh.

Well it does look like he wasn't truthful with everything. Leigh failed to reach the required attendance to push their average crowd figure up over the 2500 mark.

But Halifax did today though, 4795, heh heh

Copied from the BBC Merseysides website......

We have heard a inquiry is ongoing into Widnes's published crowd figures with a chance that the 99% done deal to "win" entry to SL will be thrown out.
This follows allegations in the Widnes programme of Sunday 25th July 2010 which contained a article about the amount of "bearded juniors , mature students and sprightly pensioners" 'paying' to watch Widnes which have given a massive distortion to the Widnes attendance figures.

SOC and Richard Lewis both refused to comment, however one Widnes fan (who wished to remain anonymous) interviewed in the Cricketers public house said "Its just not true, I always have a shave before handing my child ticket over to the turnstile operator".

No doubt this story will run for a while.

*BBC Merseysides have launched our own investigation after our recent visit to Widnes .
It appears someone broke into one of our vehicles and stole our Car Stereo, if anyone has information on this could they contact us immediately.

Like it makes a difference to attendance anyway? Haha, nice try.

Leigh to continue with Scholarships theirselves see news posted on their offical s Headlines< Back
Centurions To Continue With Scholarship Scheme
Thursday 19th August 2010

Story in brief:
Leigh Centurions have today confirmed that they will continue to run a scholarship scheme in 2011 albeit on a smaller scale Leigh Centurions have today confirmed that they will continue to run a scholarship scheme in 2011 albeit on a smaller scale.

Leigh Chief Executive Allan Rowley explained the proceedings to date;

"The RFL performance department were tasked with developing a player pathway that fitted the specific needs of the Championship Clubs and not have them operating a makeshift pathway which was designed for Super League clubs." Said Rowley.

"At a Championship meeting in March this year a proposal paper was put together and presented which had a in the RFLs words ‘a broad agreement' from those present."

"Leigh Centurions certainly did not agree with it. Whenever there has been any degree of success at Leigh it has been because the team had a nucleus of local talent, and the way forward for this club is to run its own scholarship, and have that player pathway in place."

"Two years ago we conducted an exercise which showed that out of the 344 players that made up Super League there were 137 imports. This left 207 British players. 12 of the 207 came from the Leigh Borough, which represented 4% of the whole of Super League."

"Leigh East and Leigh Miners are two of the top amateur teams in the country, between them supplying over 100 players to the professional game in the last 10 years. This is further testimony that Leigh is a hot bed for young rugby players."

"The club has invested a lot of money over the past four years and the Scholarship is just starting to pay dividends with some very creditable results and by three players this season tasting first grade rugby."

"We are now told that we can run a scholarship providing we run an under 18s team in addition to a reserve team, which is something that we just can't afford to do."

"It costs in the region of £15,000 a season to run a scholarship and around £50,000 a year to run an under 18s. We are therefore left with no alternative than to go with the RFL player pathway which will run alongside the regional programme."

"The club will select 20 players 10 from each age group under 15s and under 16s who will train at Leigh once a week and then will attend regional sessions with a further 8 players who will have been identified by the regional selectors."

"At least we can monitor the progress of the players selected and formulate a development program and player pathway for them to become future Leigh Centurions players." ite, this is what Ive copied and pasted;-

Aha!

So Leigh trying to use a short cut on there youth set up? 4% of SL but how much did Leigh RLFC train up? Can afford Robbie Paul but not an academy side?

Doesn't bode well for potential SL side!

Just ignore him, he'll be gone soon enough, to become a very small fish in a very corrupt pond

So we are likely to achieve what your boys are desperate for too and now it's a bad thing?

bet you it involves a dummy spit....

what did I tell you



Looks like there might be a second seat at the top table in 2012 if it all goes pete in Twickenham....Tolouse anyone?

A dummy spit or just telling the truth ?

We dont do ' spin ' and brown smelly stuff from male cows in Leigh , we tell it as it is , thats what made this sport in the first place , the truth

dummy spit

i know its unlikely,but if your lot get shafted...im going to laugh at you...and only you...so much... im going to die with split sides.

Fine by me! Why would that be then? For doing everything right and securing the long term future of our club on and off the pitch? I'm pretty happy with that tbh!