2nd year U16's are strong, 9 players from Kippax and 5 from Lock Lane, all the best players from the best 2 teams in Yorkshire, players to look out for:

Robin Smith - Prop
Jack Mears - 13/6
Brennen Townend - Back Row
Jacob Tooala -
Sonny Hetherington - /Fullback


With quite a few more good prospects

1st year U15's, really strange intake, with just 6 of the 20 actually playing in the top division of the Yorkshire League, the other 14 scattered between divisions 2 and 4 and RU. Quite a few of the obvious better players in the Yorkshire league are crossing the penines to Wigan/Warrington etc, on the surface, it looks like we've missed on quite a few. Some could be decisions on what the club think they can become, rather than what they are now, but know we missed on one with big potential who chose Huddersfield over us.

The best U14 team in this age group are West Hull, but we dont seem to look anywhere other than our doorstep these days, which is really dissapointing, Kells U14 in Cumbria are a great team, with lads going to Wigan/Warrington, who recruit from all the hotbeds, but we dont bother. On a side note, the Scholarship players of the year at Saints and Warrington were lads from Siddal

But yeah, apologies for waffling on, strange, but interesting, intake of first years this year

Blease has mentioned that targeting juniors from Yorkshire based RU clubs is going to be something they're going to try and do more of.

Think Matts is spot on with his assessment of scouting.

Tony Smith leaves the club with Chev likely to take his role.

Weird. Heard mixed things about Tony but I guess with all the other stuff going off around the club and Blease wanting to make his mark / take advantage of Brad Arthurs advice maybe a good clear out and a refocus is the best for all.

Hopefully with the appointment of Langley and with his stint in the RU code he might have some inside leads into the mesh of juniors / RU clubs that were now looking into. Theres a lot of untapped potential within them for sure, so having someone who was involved in those circles cant be a bad thing and may pay off.

I used to work with someone who ended up at Headingley his brother is the kit man.
Nice fella part of his job talent spotting youngsters.
Only problem he did not drive.

How do we rate our forward pack heading into the new season.
Potential starting pack:

8. Jay Oladipupo
9. Harvey Butterworth
10. Joe Butterfield
11. Jacob Stead
12. Zak Lloyd
13. Presley Cassell

Extremely talented pack, if developed correctly, should be the best pack in Academy rugby, by a distance.
But there lies the problem, development. Mentioned in the pre-season thread, i cant believe the lack of physical development these second year academy lads look to have had over the last 12 month, granted thats the backs, but they looked tiny, like they hadnt been in a gym for the last year.

Fortunately, the packs got plenty of natural size

7.Smith
6.Brown

Two quality halfs, with Jacob Hardy, who can play backrow, 6 or centre, potentially the best player out of all of them, to fit in somewhere aswel.

Yeah to be honest I thought the young backs who played on Boxing Day looked tiny which is worry in the modern game.
Agree the halves look an exciting pair but do we have any big centres coming through ?

Jacob Tooala and sonny Hetherington are both in their 2nd year of Scholarship this coming season, both among the best in the country in their age group, both play centre for their community clubs. Both got good builds, Hetherington in particular, he's well over 6ft already

Ned Mccormack out for the season and Max Simpson out for a further 8 week with a hamstring according to Peter Smith

Its actually unbelievable how many long term injuries our Academy players pick up

Clubs bloody cursed

It really is starting to feel that way. Call in the priests!