Wigan v Saints 12pm at Robin Park tomorrow, it should be another good game.

I’ll be surprised if Saints win this one. This Wigan team is outstanding although they are missing one of their props.

What do I know. Saints must have a decent team too. 46-18 win. Wigan didn’t score a point in the second half. Will be interested in Rogues take on it.

That was pretty brutal, the scoreline maybe flattered Wigan a touch. Saints so much bigger and powerful but backed up with intensity and execution. Their starting front rowers are huge and I was impressed by their number 5 on the wing, really athletic and had a bit of a chip on his shoulder/aura about him.

I think that is an excellent summary.

The Wigan side has one or two players who might cut through in a few years but Saints and Warrington have most of the pick of that younger age group.

That’s the first game I have watched this season but in the 5 or so years I have watched the Academy I have never seen Wigan get dominated like that. You could point to the size difference and say the Wigan lads have more growing/filling out go do so maybe more improvement but it was far from just size that made the difference, Wigans heads seemed to drop in the second half and it seemed some gave up almost, Saints to their credit kept the foot on the pedal and it was a bit like men against boys.

wigan got the best player at age group thats just come through

That was my point, needs more than one player.

Who’s that then?

Nobody stood out for Wigan today, the pack got dominated by the Saints front rowers almost bullied.

I’ve heard big things of Nathan Lowe but he was playing with his head up his backside today, doing his own thing.

Jack Farrmond showed some good touches but that’s about it.

I’ve not seen a Wigan junior team as flaky in defence as that before. They didn’t look like they wanted to try and mix it with the Saints forwards at all. After years of dominance at that level, we currently look to be hitting a bit of a lull. I’m not close enough to it to know why that is. Are we getting outbid for the best juniors? One thing is for sure, if you want to base the club around producing your own players, you can’t afford to not be getting the cream of the crop from the local area.

In saying all that, results aren’t hugely important at that level, if you can bring through a couple of top quality young players every so often, rather than rafts of decent ones, you’re probably better off. Saints haven’t won anything like the amount of titles we have at academy level but in the past 6-8 years, they’ve produced more internationals than we have.

Hasn’t there been a shuffle of the pack when it comes to the youth development positions at the club? I think they’ll have identified there’s going to be a problem in the supply line.

To be fair to Wigan I think 15 out of their 17 were first years whereas Saints were mainly 2nd years. Makes a big difference at that age.

Jack, watched that age group for years and he was the stand out growing up against everyone

It does but, there are certain things you expect from a Wigan side and I think we came up short in two areas - defence and teamwork. There were some good players on show but, as usual, it will be interesting to see who goes on to make the grade.

Yep he has got talent and also that bit of cockiness that is a necessary component in a half backs make up.

Where have all the Blackbrook side from that age gone? Saints/Warrington?

normally go to saints the age above did, that was a crazy good Blackbrook team, I think they won everything

Sure Wigan and Saints will continue to bring top players through. The results aren’t that important. Seen our academy teams dominate for years but not been replicated in first team

Saints were by far the better team. Their pack was much bigger and more aggressive I really didn't see that result coming though. At 18 all with about 10 minutes to go to half time and Wigan having the wind at their backs in the second half I expected them to take the game to Saints. The exact opposite happened.
In reality the 1st Saints try summed Wigans defence up. Wigan had gone in front and then lost the ball in the 1st set of six after the kick off. Saints get close to the line and on the last tackle score from dummy half with three Wigan players hold of him. One of my great no no's, shouldn't happen at any level especially pro players at any age.
The Saints props were excellent on both sides of the ball and Robertson really does look a class player, although I thought he was under used (luckily for us)
Plenty of work for these young Wigan lads to do!!

Cheers for that Brian. I was waiting for your report. Have you come off Twitter by the way?

You know my contact at Wigan and he said that he thought Wigan would go undefeated this season at Academy level so I too wasn't expecting this result.

No Stu, but I got a message on Saturday that my account had been hacked, so I changed my password etc. I'll send you a message later to see if it gets through.

Cheers. I tried to DM you to get your thoughts on the Academy game then realised I couldn't find you.

The St Helens prop Noah Stephens is a beast, will be interesting to see his progress.

I've heard that too. I believe that last year against Wigan he completely changed the game in a 25 min spell.

As you say it will be interesting to see how he progresses. He could be another Sammy Kibula and look outstanding at this age and fall away or he could kick on.