Quote from Singleton in the YEP:

“At Hunslet I am playing against men, it’s better than playing in the under-20s and it makes it an easier step up into Super League.”

Never mind what a player thinks, the direct transition from U19s to first grade on a regular basis must be the only route, and you're stuffed if you hit 19 and haven't made it.

I didn't get that impression from the interview unless the printed version is different to the online one?

The Cumbrian admits it has been a hard road so far, but says the recent run of games has made up for the frustration of his time as a nearly-man in the squad.
The former Barrow Island junior added: “I have been at four different clubs now, but this is the one I want to be at
“Hopefully I can carry on. I feel like I am part of it now, I have been hanging around for three years really, getting a game every year and even this year I wasn’t getting much of a look in until we had a few injuries.
At 20 Singleton is one of the youngest front-rowers in Super League, but he insisted: “When I wasn’t playing regularly I felt like I was too old – I was looking across at other teams and thinking there’s 20 year olds in there.
Rhinos’ partnership with Kingstone Press Championship neighbours Hunslet means Singleton has played first-team rugby every week, if fit, even when he wasn’t getting in at Leeds.
“I can’t say it hasn’t helped me,” he said. “At the end of the day, if I am not playing in the first team here that’s the only place I can play.


Yep, those comments are full of enthusiasm for the way he has had to do it.

Much better we help players believe life and their sport is fully of easy options and never a challenge

You mean like this?



Or this?



Or this?



Now if his position was in agreement of the Hunslet way, wouldn't he have said "I needed to be at Hunslet, to be more prepared for when I am called upon for first team"? Not "I can't say it hasn't helped, as it's the only way I could get a game"


Like I said earlier, if it is read without the blue and amber spectacles, you can see it for what it is. Rather than just simply defending everything the club does is right, and looking for something that isn't there to prove it.

None of that tells me he was disallusioned. FFS he says the only placed he wants to be is Leeds. If he were disallusioned would he want to be here?

That would have some merit, if I had ever said he was dissallusioned at Leeds.

It was clear my comment was on being farmed out to Hunslet, and not getting a look in until injuries forced it.

19-20 year old in "waiting makes me impatient" shocker.

Players get frustrated when they're rested, but people seem quite happy to cal for that.

Out of interest, can any resident stattos tell me how many younger props there are in SL? If, as I suspect, it isn't many, then the fact that he thought he was getting too old is tempered somewhat by the very real possibility that he was wrong.

Age should never be the factor in a shirt obtained. That is the whole point. Ability should be the only decider, and that should be compared to his competition in a matchday 17.

If you don't have the ability, and your competition are much better than you, then there isn't an argument. But if you still want that player to get to the level, then he needs the competition adequate to attain it.

It isn't just that though. Why are there so few 20 year old props? I would suggest that the reason is the stress that the collisions that are the bread and butter role of a prop forward (even in an age where RL players are getting increasingly homogenous, that biff-up-the-middle role still exists) put a huge strain on the body and most people don't finish the main musculo-skeletal development until their early 20s. So even if you're good enough and apparently able to do it at 19, it might not be a good idea to do it too often. You don't have to watch loads of Championship and junior grade RL to see that the Championship is a level of physicality down in terms of speed of impact, and junior grades a level further back.

There is a long term game to be played here. What you're advocating amounts, to my mind, to impatience.