He is still a young prospect he is 22. As i said earlier he was regarded along with Inglis as one of the top prospects in World Rugby League a few years ago. To be fair he stagnated for a couple of years but last year really kicked on.

His performance in the Grand Final was nothing short of World Class had Webb produced that performance we would still be talking about it now, we as a code in my opinion cannot allow players with such potential to and proven ability to perform leave our code.

The talent pool is so small, we cannot allow it to get even smaller and remove one of its biggest fish.

Myler tipped for an England call up sooner rather than later.

Ashton broke the League scoring record in his first season in the game. Was being banded about as a potential British Lion player earlier in the season form dropped off by all accounts now and he is in and out of the Northampton side at the moment.

Faz England international, Sarricens captain.

Owen Farrell & George Ford Englands stand out performers in the 18's age group 6 Nations last year (a team captained by a lad from Wakefield, an inside centre and massive League fan). Owen Farrell, and i may be wrong but think i am correct is the youngest player to ever play first team rugby union in the Guiness Premiership.

i agree about the GF performance and that part about the infallible brent web but i think its a little over hype IMHO

Would you not like to see how he develops in the next 3 years. He is not the finished article but he is still one of the few flair players and top prospects in the game, allowing him to leave and our inability to prevent it from happening, is very bad for the game as a whole.

nothing more than a world beating GB side would i like to see but i believe that's comes from the heart and if smith was ambitious in league then he would of stayed , you will have to excuse me but i m trying to think of a top SL who turned union down a couple of years ago but for the life in me i can not remember

Incidentally can i apologise for my part in the thread getting out of hand.

I do enjoy posting on here and i do indeed love Trinity. I also love rugby league and am very very passionate about the development of our young talent which is why i so adoment on the issue, i have been involved in it for the last 5 years now at one level or another and it breaks my heart to think that some of the players I and others have invested so much time and effort in, at best can hope to play league as a stepping stone for a career in union.

Apologies once again.

Jonh.

Pryce Radlinski and Cunningham all did it, not sure about Pryce but the latter 2 were given massive financial insentives to stay in League from external scources.

i think a few of us let it go astay

Is smith actually going or is it a ploy just to up contract talks?

Its been in the Yorkshire post that Wasps and Wigan have been interested.

So he hasnt signed anything then?

Nothing confirmed.

Absolute non story then

Anyway why would Wigan be interested?

1. He isnt Australian
2. He's under 30

the rfl set the coaching standards. at the moment there is new badges to work for you do a paper on rules a coaching session for maybe 15 mins and some book work. the level 2 now is more health and safety than coaching, bottles in a square, post protectors on ambuance access, first aid kits. these are supposed to be filled out before sessions. very few unless theyre completely hopless will fail a badge. many coaches in the junior game take a team on reluctanly as a parent as there is no one else and they do this to keep the teams afloat. they need help, they need to be looked at when theyve done there badge and guided along. the top badge to coach at sl and pro is supposed to be absolutly stupid, with 12 modules many none game related and at a cost of nearly a thousand pounds yes a grand.

The system is beyond flawed to say the least.

I was put in a situation where are coach at eastmoor who was going for the course left, as a parent 4 of us took over 1 with a coaching badge that couldn't make it all the time and three of us that kept it going,
its far from easy to even look after the kids never mind teach them to play rugby.

I bow my hat to all that take the course and go on to help the young ones

totally agree with that

you see snowie this is where things go wrong, most teams have good players till they get to say 11 then the ones who are coached better push beyond them, now through no fault of their own parents and some coaches dont know how to take kids to the next level. this is why they need help through the year. ive seen coaches at under 8s tell lads to run for the wing as they had more pace than anyone else but when they still tell them to do it at 11 and they cant its all over for most of the kids. get them to run hard and tackle hard and it sets them up for the future.

My lads head is down as at the mo as he's taken the brunt of what I think is absolute crap coaching and from a ex pro, don't get me wrong he knows is stuff but hes playing them like pro's,
firstly the kids have to enjoy the game or they will just drift away from the game, but you have to forgive the mistakes and miss timed runs they are only kids

I wish I was ten years younger, I would of put my heart into helping the kids now as I see a future for the game that I hadn't seen before until our lewis played

see your p.m. interested on your thoughts if not i will ask wider in the Wakefield area.

got it

My take on it is this.

So far the recruits from league have been expensive mistakes. Only Jason Robinson could be regarded as a success, but at league he was unique, one of the most exciting wingers I have ever seen. The rest perhaps went for the wrong reasons; ie, money.

Farrell was a publicity exercise. My abiding memory of Farrell going to Union was that they announced it on the opening day of Super League in whatever year it was, and at that point the contract hadn't been signed. It was a coup, a signal that league was dead because they could nick the best player in the game, and nothing more. For me, it said that they didn't know where they would Farrell would play, pack or centres, but he was deserving of an England place, but if the best person in whatever position that may be is a bloke with knackered knees who doesn't know union, then the English union game must be in a desperate position.

The rest of the 'converts' have failed. Lee Smith may be an exception. We should do all we can to keep our players in the game. Union players have brought to union a panache that league players have coached out of them. Would league have produced a Jonathan Davies? I doubt it. But we must protect our game and preserve our players.

Jonh makes a point about the salary cap. The problem I have with a Wigan fan talking about the salary cap is that what they usually mean is that the reason that they don't win anything is because they can't buy up every good player and watch the rest of the game bankrupt themselves trying to keeep up.

One of the problems we have is that is that the good English players are concentrated in just a couple of clubs, and they will never move as it is only in those clubs that that trophies are to be won, and the salary cap restricts what salaries can be paid.

I would like to see Lee Smith stay in League, and I appreciate that he has got to look after himself. But for people who leave League, I find it very hard to forgive, as they are undermining the one sport that has sustained me throughout my life.

Huge urban myth. Rivalling the NRL is boaring and Wigan do not support there young players.

very few have actually failed in union.

Spot on!!!!