When I lived in Bradford I cannot think of one school which played rugby league, and I believe that is why recently on this board very few Bradford born players were found apart from recent years. Even Jack Kitching the only Bradford born player of the forties started with Bradford RU. I now live in S Wales and both my grandsons play League at school, one at Caerphilly and the other in Bridgend. The recent Europe cup win was basically a S Wales side. There are now at least a dozen sides in the summer competition and I see Blackwood in Gwent will play for the first time in the Challenge cup. Yes, the Super League side as been a disaster, but don't throw out the baby with the bath water. A very strong side could be made up to play in the National League without imports.
I do hope the clubs vote for a Welsh side in the National League this season, they won't regret it.
Incidentally over 6 rugby league stars were born in the street I live in, the last being John Devereux. In the village itself there were three Rugby leagueLions, and every Rugby League competition has seen one of our players from the vill age a winners medal. Only last year one of our club record holders at Halifax had his record of goals for a season broken. Our nearest RU ground is Swansea so local players round here enjoy the RL competition

Fair Enough.

It is looking very now that there will be a National League side based in Neath, and coached by Harris. This will take care of the expanding youth development in S Wales, and keep the game expanding. I hope now for no overseas imports, and in two or three years we will have a steady stream of players good enough for SL. This will also solve the problem of not being able to attract northern players to S Wales, which has ben another major problem. Certainly an all Welsh side will attract the locals, and give the young players a target to aim for.

Good post, but seeing as a few posters seem to see Gateshead as little short of disastrous, I'll throw in my opinion on this. To my mind, Gateshead was the biggest missed opportunity. The club was working; if you lived in the area you could see that. They were regularly featured in local press and on news, they had a growing fanbase, people were wearing the shirt, you could start an rl conversation with strangers and there was interest from neutrals. School kids were playing the game. If they'd received a fraction of the support that quins have received, I'm pretty sure they'd be in SL now.

Gateshead was sacrificed to save Hull (Sharks) FC. The thought of losing a heartland of RL from SL was just too much for the powers that be to stomach so, after failing to get the Hull/KR merger, the RFL sanctioned the Gateshead/Hull (Sharks) FC merger.