Quote: Once were Loiners "I agree with giving the kids a chance this season, but I don't see much point in playing them out of position or in very brief cameos when the game is dead. What exactly did Johnson's 3 minutes on the pitch achieve - either for the team or the player? Same with Ruan in recent games. Either pick him and trust him to play a normal role off the bench as part of the forward rotation, or don't pick him at all.'"
I agree with you - he did pick Lumb though and the lad got badly injured within 1 game and 5 minutes - injury risk is higher for lads playing open age coming from academy and we've seen that loads. It's a balance between experience and longer-term welfare.
Very occasionally you'll get a Morley or Sam Burgess who comes through and smashes it at 17 but they are definitely the exception.