LOL

There are more than a few in North Leeds, and for the rest, as well as West Leeds there is Bramley and perhaps you should ask the Lost Loiners where they practice in South Leeds ?

As for Wakefield, one of the most successful Yorkshire League clubs of recent decades play there, if you really want to know where all of the senior clubs play then look here rlhttp://yorkshirerfu.pitchero.com/rl, most of those clubs will have teams in every age group from 8 years old upwards.

One of the biggest RU clubs in the calder area is run by John Bentley (you've probably heard of him) and
Castleford RU have four open age teams and teams right through the age groups hrlttp://www.pitchero.com/clubs/castlefordrugbyunion/rl, Ponte have three open age and two junior teams - if you seek out the information you'll find it.

Its a huge sport even in areas that you assume are dominated by League clubs, my brothers RU club for instance struggles to host all of its league matches on its own (fully owned) five pitches every weekend and on a Sunday morning there will normally be 70 or more under 15s playing for the home teams, most of those being cultured from local schools which are not your typical "toffs schools", far from it actually - this is mainly because they make their presence known there and one of those schools plays RL as its main sport, my nephew plays both.

Bramley Phoenix, Burley RU and Morley RU ring any bells to you? If they don't please open your eyes

Back on topic - the defence today was excellent - especially against a potent attacking player like Chase. Leeds held Salford up three times over the line in the first half.

To not concede in the second half was a great achievement.

The really test will come on Saturday - let's hope the team show the same level of commitment.

There are a few token teams kicking around. But there are far more league clubs. Most union clubs 3rd & 4th teams are vet sides or social sides, I no people who have quit playing league in the mid 30's and played a bit of union into there 40's as the game is so easy. I know one guy pushing 60 and still playing union in 3rd team.
Pontefract and castleford union clubs do not have junior teams much younger that u15 and neither run have run a fourth team for years.

"Token teams"? What are the Rugby League teams that are in these areas then?

You're pretty clueless really aren't you ?

Who cares what the standard is?
Amateur RL clubs desperately needs to realise that they are not the be all and end all. Whether Stanningley/Oulton/Milford/Queens/whoever wins is largely immaterial at EVERY age group. Amateur clubs have 2 roles, to develop players, and (much more importantly in my opinion) be a gateway into the sport for ANYONE who might be interested.
You can take the mick out of those Union 3rd & 4th teams, but they're probably organising or participating in a club trip to Twickers each year and are putting money into their club and the sport and getting their mates involved too. Whilst the likes of Stanningley might pat themselves on the back when they finish top of the league or beat their rivals, would they not rather have more kids and an extra 40 or so adults involved with them and the sport?

We can learn from Union at pro level as to how to put on event games, but we can learn far, far more from them at amateur level.

But after having not paid and not watched those films will you spend time on the internet telling those of us that have what was wrong with them?

Rugby in schools in Leeds, and I expect other areas, especially at Primary level is dependant very much on the attitude of the school and the staff who work there. I spend a couple of lunchtimes a week coaching Y4-6 boys and girls contact rugby league. We do some tag in PE, enter Leeds Rugby FOundation, Leeds and Hunslet Schools Rugby and school sports partnership competitions both for tag and contact. Not one other member of staff in my school has an interest in rugby. I've taken a few to games but they are never going to want to go regularly. If I left tomorrow, all the extra curricular rugby would stop.

There are more schools playing rugby league in Leeds than there were 2 years ago, it is growing quickly and some competitions are fully subscribed. However, it is still less than 20%. Looking at it another way, some schools in our area can't field a football team (7 lads to kick a ball around - can't be true!) and it purely down to the will of the staff.

Leeds Rugby Foundation used to target specific schools and do in to do a coaching block - this was often focused around clubs where camps were taking place. With the sports premium money schools have received they have now set up packages schools can buy in and again, they were over subscribed and have had to take on extra staff. They do a bloody marvellous job. In the 9 years I've worked at my place we've had one offer of free coaching from the RFU and one from the Rhinos. If all this central funding is providing schools with great opportunities to access RFU coaches I'm yet to see it.

The opportunities are there with Leeds to provide great opportunities for kids, but there has to be a member of staff willing to give up their time to do it. Without getting into a debate about teachers, finding that time isn't easy and my life would be a lot easier if I didn't do it. But I love it, so I carry on.

The game as a whole could learn a lot from the systems Leeds have put in place around the city.

I think you've sort of missed the point, but don't worry about it, the moment has gone.

Agree 100%. Leeds are trying to do it the right way but it's only got limited funds since the disappearance of both Sport England and Council funding. But they're also coming up against some very negative (and very petty and backward in my opinion) attitudes from the amateur game in Leeds.

Sorry to go so wildly off topic but I thought our goal-line defence was pretty marvelous again today. Some awesome last ditch efforts to hold up or drag players into touch when they looked more likely to score than not.

On topic? Bit radical, but go on then.

I have little doubt that our "against" column is a little skewed by our fixture list so far. But at the same time, even against the weaker teams we're conceding fewer points than other teams, and certainly fewer than we have in the past few seasons. This run of very low "against" scores in matches we've won easily at least suggests a maintaining of our concentration in defence which we haven't always seen.

I doubt we'll manage quite such low numbers on Saturday, but if we apply the same level of commitment and organisation (and concentration) all year (not a given by any means) we'll be pretty hard to beat.

I think Saturday is a huge game. I see a top 3 potentially emerging this year (although Cas's bubble refuses to burst at the moment) and two of them playing each other now is a big, big match. I'm quite excited about it.

If Saints were s**t I wouldn't be as excited...

Anyone for cake?

Did somebody mention cake?