Regarding what Peacock has said, he has never said that he wants Rovers to start an U23's team, he said that he wants to start a reserve team .....It's just another term for the old "A" team format.

Do you remember the old "A" team format? .......It was competitive rugby played by youngsters coming through the ranks to play regularly against men instead of just training and then being thrown into first team rugby when the first team were injury ridden ......It was competitive rugby played by all those first team players that had experienced a loss of form and had a chance to prove themselves once again through actual playing time instead of just going through the motions of training ......It was competitive rugby that gave a first team player the chance to ease themselves back into competitive rugby after recovering from an injury .......And, it was competitive rugby that gave a player from the amateur game an opportunity to prove that they have the skills to make it in the professional game (Do you remember "A n other" and "S o else"?).

We all know that "A" team rugby is the right way forward for our game, but, unfortunately, the RFL are too proud and stubborn to admit that they made a mistake abandoning "A" team rugby in favour for the youth academy structure.

And, regarding the "fair pay structure" .......Is it fair to pay an up and coming local talent, say, 16 grand a year when they are performing at the best of their abilities and doing everything right in the academy structure then offer them 14 grand a year at the next contract negotiations?

If your employer did the same with you would you be ok with that? ......This is what I meant by forcing young players out of the game.

Personally, I think that young players shouldn't be paid until they are offered a contract to step up to the first team. They should seek a profession outside of rugby and play rugby for the love of it and aim to be a professional first team player ......Paying youngsters a wage to be a part of the academy structure only makes them vulnerable to feeling unwanted when they are offered less money or told that they are not wanted and makes them make the decision to turn their back on the game completely .......This is what the current academy structure is doing and has done for the previous years ......And we wonder why the game is growing less popular as the years go by!

What nonsense, it's not 1936!

Players play for money, the option of waorking on a trawler during the week and playing at the weekend is a misty eyed whim.

they must have been super fast trawlers,going to iceland,white sea,bear island and greenland in a week,and back in time to play rugby.

you know full well what I was getting at, the misty eyed nostalgia of times long passed. RL is a career in itself now, has been for a while.

How are players like Lancaster, Logan, Matongo, Turgut doing. They all had 1st team rugby last year and 1 or 2 games this year - but are they knocking on the door or have they fallen back a bit?

Add Fash, Downs and HTW to that list.