I could understand in a way why Wigan would oppose it. We have a crop of players who are all too good for the U20's league but not quite ready for SL week in week out. So instead of them going stale we can now send them to Wales or other clubs and give them a competitive game each week without losing them completely.

Yes, Wigan as a club did support the original proposal by the RFL of having an U23's with no overage players, but they certainly don't support what is actually going to happen after the RFL moved the goalposts and decided to scrap the U20's altogether leaving no link between the U18's and first team.

What will they learn in South Wales? The standard there is way below the standard of our under 20s. Players only improve by playing in a high level of competition.
I suppose there is also a problem in the under 20s in the fact that some teams don't give the top teams a game but the same can be said of superleague.

So in the new system what happens when a player turns 19? Can they still play under 18s or are they expected to play first team rugby/go out on loan/leave?

I honestly don't know to be honest but I know as much as the current U20's players know at the moment. They believe that no over U18's will be able to play under 18's rugby and the only option open to them is loan or dual reg.

It all seems very strange. I work with a Swinton player and they are pairing up with Warrington next season with the understanding that most of their fringe players like Currie, Dwyer Gareth O'brien etc will be on dual reg with Swinton. I don't know how that would work with us given that arguably our entire U20's side are on the fringe. He is of the opinion that there are only Wigan and salford scrapping the U20's which doesn't match up with what was said at a meeting last week between the U20's coaching staff and players.

Did you see my PM the other day about what was said at the meeting with the U20's?

Obviously this will give Swinton a short term boost but what happens to the youngsters that they produce? Or do the likes of Swinton not produce any and just feed off the scraps from SL clubs?


No. What was said?

You could if you did not use all your rich benifactors money on transfer fees prizing away other superleague teams best contracted talent, Moore, Green, Taylor etc !!!!















Unfortunatley super league is going back to the bad old days when you can buy all your trophys back !
Your in a good position that you dont have to spend money on your ground !!!

Thanks for that

Surely Wigan are going to have more than 6 players that they wish to DR with their partnered club (lets say Scorpions for the sake of argument) ? So where will the rest go ? And I would suggest that even 6 DR's in a single club is probably too many for the Scorpions to take in one match, as it will leave little head room for their own players and annoy their fan base to boot.

Another interesting point in all this is that those Champ. clubs that have SL aspirations (Fev. Fax, Leigh) don't seem to have partnered up yet (for some strange reason

)

This entire process appears to be a complete fiasco. I suspect the lack of any formal announcement from the RFL probably means that there is no real agreement at either SL or Champ. level, and the end result will be that a very good youth development prog. will be destroyed and a lot of youngsters thrown on the scrap heap - all because clubs like HKR and Cas need to save money.

Another Rhino feeling the pressure.

Who's Moore?

Sorry mate matty smith. Not feeling the pressure, we spend what we can afford and and have won numerous superleague grand finals from running the club within the rules of the game and not cheating the salary cap !

Matty Smith was coming to Wigan next year anyway Salford were in trouble cash wise so Wigan paid a fee so that he could play this year .
Under Ian Leneghan this club financially has grown under his leadership from losing 400k a year under Maurice Lindsay to a profit of 250k last year.The purse strings have never been tighter since IL came .

What is it with you Dingles?

Boring, boring, boring.

does it really need that many f*cking smileys you complete drip?

Aww. He needs approval wherever he can get it - even from yet more of his imaginary friends.

The farce is strong in this one.

Oh dear, another club in the shadow of Wigan feeling the pressure.

Dam you getting me excited!

I thought we'd agreed the first million pound transfer in rugby league to sign Richard Moore.

One can dream.

Great isn't it. God bless Maurice Lindsay. From the depths of relegation looming to winning 4 trophies in 3 years. I can feel Wigan domination on the horizon again, which wont suit your super grand final winning club because you haven't exactly got the finest of records versus us in finals have you?

While the Hetheringtons are in RL, anything could happen to Leeds. It wouldnt surprise me to see them win the GF from outside the play-off's soon

Any news on Scott Taylor? It's still quiet at our end.

My understanding is that there is less than 50% chance of this deal happening.

Do you happen the know the reason why?

I presume it's agreeing a transfer fee with Hull KR which is causing the hold up in any deal as according to the Observer earlier this week it was all set to be tied up some time soon.