With the U18's having six players on tour in Australia, I wonder if any of the U16's will get a call up as they have completed their fixtures?

No. I'm told it's been banned.

Correct can't play until next March.

What's the point in having that rule? I thought the under 18's competition wasn't even a competitive tournament? What's the thinking behind it?

Not sure. But when asking our Under 18s coach on twitter, he said "I think its better to be honest" so......

Without Joe Burgess, Ryan Hampshire, George Williams, Lewis Tierney and Ryan Sutton, this will be a big test for those that remain. A test that is not often provided at Under 18s and probably better to guage players than if you upgrade the best of the Under 16s.

And what's changed? Last year the likes of Hampshire, Williams, Tierney, Burgess, Wright, Lever etc played in the 18's in July (straight out of the U16's team)

Has to tow the "party line" on behalf of the club I suspect.

Tony Smith at a fans' forum this week expressed his belief that the changes being proposed to academy and scholarship rugby would lead to a reduction in the number of young players being developed and a corresponding increase in the number of average Australians playing in Super league.

That's a bit rich coming from a the coach of a team with the oldest squad in Super League, and a coach who has used the full overseas quota at every team he has had.

He's still entitled to his opinion though, and as we all know, this is the RFL and things change constantly, and not always for the better.

The first thing to note on the under 16's is that this season the North west counties 16-18's changed to a summer season therefore the lads in question still have commitments at their amatuer clubs until October. Last seaosn the lads had finsihed their commitments as they came off the back of a winter based season. I think there would be uproar if this seasons under 16's didnt go back to complete the fixtures (although the season has been a disaster)

They dont have this problem in Yorkshire as they still play Winter.

Changes in the scholarship and acadamy are good for the game for development of the youth but the re structure of the middle section with kill superleague as we know it, there will be no room for half baked aussies as contracts will be of a premium, dare i say though this is being driven not by the RFL but by the men who pull the purse strings who 9 times out of 10 know naff all about rugby league

Warrington have a spare quota spot this season. HTH.

But not one of your five overseas players under the age of thirty.

Your concern about Warrington's aged team is appreciated. With the number of youngsters being developed by clubs reducing in the years ahead it is something we are all going to have to get use to.

We'll be o.k.
Example. We'll have eleven or twelve academy produced players in the side tonight and not one of them is yet 30.

That's the level that all clubs should be aiming at. Unfortunately it would appear that is not going to be the case as the investment in developing young players across the game is going to be allowed to drop alarmingly.

The game should be aiming at forcing clubs to match the money that Wigan expend on youth development and talent spotting. It is what Warrington has made a conscious effort to do in recent years and even we have managed excess of ten academy products in our 17 at stages this year.

Let's hope that the changes that are imposed do not prohibit clubs from spending money in youth development. If Wigan take the "I'm alright Jack" view because of the strength in the local amateur scene and subsequently side with the penny-pinchers from Yorkshire I think that will prove to be an insular view to take with consequences for the strength of the game overall moving forward.

Wigan beat Cas today at U20 level.

Final score Wigan 54 Cas 4.

Jack Hughes showed great pace with 2 long range tries.

U15's beat Cas 50 - 14 yesterday.

Don't forget U18's at home to Wakefield at Orrell, kick off 2 p.m.

Not sure who is "investing" in youth and who is not.
Apart from money, what also seems to be a problem is that some clubs are plundering scholorship products of others less wealthy.
This is giving the impression that there isn't sufficient talent being produced and spread across the league but concentrated in the few but wealthy clubs.
It's time clubs who produce real talent from their scholarship teams are more able to keep them.
There used to a regulation that a club could only sign one youth player a year from outside their service area. Don't know what happened to that rule but it doesn't seem to apply anymore.
We need to go back to that or perhaps that a club is only allowed one player every two years from outside their service area. That would oblige clubs to develop their own schools, service area, amateur clubs and the youth system in their own area than spending big plundering talent developed by other clubs.

U18's beat Wakefield 24 - 12 with a very gritty commendable performance especially when you consider that they were missing the six players on tour in Australia.

I don't know any of the player's names but our numbers 10 and 5 stood out for me

It's clear from looking at the "academy origin" of current SL players (excluding overseas ones) that just half a dozen clubs provide the vast majority of players.

Wigan (40)
Leeds (2icon_cool.gif
Bradford (26)
Castleford (24)
Saints (23)
Hull FC (21)

It's high time the others produced their own talent instead of relying on other clubs' cast-offs.

Those figures are interesting.
Where did you get them from?
Link please if poss.

From my own research, basically, which I did some time ago for a different reason (and recently updated). Not sure I still have the complete list available from all clubs, but for anyone interested, the Wigan list is:

Current squad (20):
S. Tomkins
Charnley
Goulding
Thornley
Prescott
McIlorum
Mossop
Hock
O'Loughlin
Hansen
Hughes
Tuson
Farrell
Marsh
Mellor
Russell
L. Tomkins
King
Spencer
Crosby

Other clubs (20):
O'Carroll
Davies
Brown
Robinson
S. Briscoe
Melling
Ainscough
Veivers
S. Gleeson
Colbon
T. Coyle
Hargreaves
Johnson
Clarke
Allen
Kavanagh
Jones
Aspinwall
Wild
Howarth

(that might go up by 1 if Longy does come out of retirement!)

The above numbers are obvioulsy inflated by including fringe squad players who in truth will never be Super League quality. Possibly better to look at teams from this round of fixtures in which case (from a quick scan of teams):

Wigan 25
Leeds 21
Saints 16
Warrington 14
Castleford 13
National League 12
Bradford 11
Wakefield 11
Hull 10
Hull KR 9
London 6
Salford 6
Widnes 5
Huddersfield 4

I disagree; it's a squad game these days, and also your criterion doesn't allow for those out injured or suspended. I've used those who have played at least one SL game, which by definition implies they're of SL quality. I haven't included those that are in a team's 25-man squad but haven't (yet) played in SL. The fact still applies, though, that by either set of criteria, a lot of clubs are not producing enough new talent, and are relying on those that produce a surplus.