Would have thought they would have tried to sign on kyle moore..used to be mates with my lad..in u15s hopefully todd will mkae it..pace to burn, good tackler and can play in a few positions..luke robinson is a very good prop/loose forward as well..against leeds u15s were getting whooped in first half..he came on at half time and immediately caused havoc.

Jared will make it deffo..with us or hudders tho is anyones guess..hope his dad persuades him to sign for us.

Minichella at leeds is a good player..was at bulls but went over there instead.

Kyle Moore wouldn't be a bad shout, as for Luke Robinson, he's the biggest pile of crap i've seen. Effective for 10mins then thats it. Not consistant, doesn't use his weight enough, thank god he's been kicked off scholarship. Theres miles better than him. Jarrod will be a bull. There is massive talk about him at the club, even Curtis Naughton said that to him and he's the best fullback at 16's rugby in England.

Minchella is a t**t. Played against him a few week ago, all he wants to do is fight, runs some great lines but not the sort of player who you want in your team. Got smashed everytime he ran it in against us.

Really interesting thread guys, what about you U18's have you any looking ready to make the step up to first team?

Got to say i am dissapointed with your 18's this year, went to watch the other day has my brother plays with Cas 18's, Bradford have some quality players in there side, but look very unfit. My cousin plays for the Bulls 18's so i always keep an eye on there results

whos your cousin??

George Marchant.

Just a question (and its not a pop at the Bulls) but what suprises me about the junior signings you've just made is the fact only one is from Bradford???

Is junior rugby in the area struggling?

I'd be interested to know how many teams in Bradford have a full youth set up. Dudley Hill? West Bowling? Queensbury? It might be the case there's not a big pool to pick from in Bradford?

Part of the explanation is to do with the geographical layout of the Bradford Service Area. And have a look at where Odsal is physically situated. Then it becomes much clearer.

Odsal is at the very southern tip of the Bradford Metropolitan district (which extends northwest way beyond Keighley and over the moors to Ilkley), and of the Service Area.

You can walk from Odsal into the neighbouring metropolitan districts of Kirklees (Huddersfield) Calderdale (Halifax) and Leeds - in one case in less than ten minutes. Wakefield district is not far away either.

What this means is that much of the Bulls' hinterland is actually in neighbouring districts. Look at a map and you will see what I mean! Remember too that the heavy woollen district tends to have historically much more affinity with Bradford (and Halifax and Huddersfield) than Wakefield (mining) or Leeds (ready made clothing, mining etc).

This accident of nature puts Bulls at a disadvantage to most other "big" clubs, that tend to be more centrally-situated within their Service Area. And it gets worse. Pretty well all the amateur sides - and, I believe, all those that run junior sides? - are in the south Bradford area - i.e. within a (admittedly sometimes long) walk of Odsal. South Bradford - and on into the Calder valley - is the RL hinterland in Bradford. You then get that huge swathe across the centre of the city and the district which is now predominantly Asian, where both Bulls and Bantams struggle (despite best efforts) to overcome what seems to be a cultural difficulty in team sport participation. Then you get into north Bradford, which is very much the soccer club's hinterland and the on to the Aire Valley and beyond, which (other than Keighley) has little RL background (it is more Union, e.g. the Bees at Dowley Gap). And most of the Aire Valley (most especially Keighley) - quite apart from beyond into the Wharfe Valley - do their best to ignore any connection with Bradford anyway. Ask Tigertot how much RL is played in Ilkley...?

What this means is that the RL interest in the Bradmet district is concentrated in the extreme south and around Keighley. And therefore not that many amateur clubs.

Leaving aside all the inevitable arguments about how much the Bulls can and should spend on trying to develop junior RL in the city (an area where there was a big new investment last year anyway) This has to have a substantial effect on the talent pool available.

It is no coincidence that the training base at Tong is superbly situated for the widest possible easy-travel RL heartland catchment area. It must give the club an advantage to help offset the big geographical disadvantage. The previous base at Apperley Bridge was miles away from the RL heartland.

That lot is, I suggest, at least a partial answer. Those who are actively involved in the junior or amateur game in the Service Area will be far better qualified to improve on it.

A relation of Tony?

I wondered that, especially since I used to work with Tony's brother.

Well if he turns out to be even nearly as good as Tony Marchant he'll be a brilliant signing. No pressure like.........

The ones that I've seen junior rugby played at are:

Dudley Hill
Queensbury
West Bowling
Wibsey
Clayton
Driglington
Bradford Victoria Rangers
Wyke

Admitedly not all have U8's to U18's but the majority have teams that can feed into the Bulls scholarship.

On the topic of Junior Sides in Bradford (as I believe im in the best position to comment):

Dudley Hill have an Under 18's and Under 16's, however there is no teams below until Under 13's. I play for both of the U18's and U16's, and the U16's only have a handful of decent player's, one or two that could potentially make it at maybe Championship level. I am the only one on any form of scholarship (Keighley). However at U18's one player (Danny Softley) has quit/been dropped at Bulls and another player Adam Jefferson is at Huddersfield.

West Bowling seem to have many players on scholarship but what other people don't realise is that if you play for West Bowling you are practically on a scholarship because they have a 'close-relasionship' with the Bulls. Again most West Bowling teams were in the West Riding League (which is a crap league) so they were beating teams by 60 points every week, this year they were put in the Yorkshire League (Dudley Hill been in this league for years) which is a lot harder, with them beating teams left right and centre they were put in the Premier Division against Shaw Cross, Siddal, Normanton etc. They were getting battered by these teams and it showed how crap they actually were and it proved when Keighley Scholarship (my team) beat them 16-12 at Cougar Park, we had 6 players from Division 4,5 and 6 (2 from each) two players from the U15's and the rest from Wibsey. And a lot of West Bowling were up at the Bulls, so a 2nd-rate side beat a bunch of 'Superstars'. Hence why all except one got dropped from Bulls.

There are some class talent in Bradford it's just a lot arn't good enough or they look in the wrong places. The Bulls U15's showed that this year, majority were from West Bowling and all of them got dropped. One from Keighley Cougar Cubs (Kyle Akrigg) who's class is still on it.

Queensbury - folded at 16's
Wyke - in Division 6 at 16's (one player who needs looking at)
Dudley Hill - in Division 5 at 16's (2 players who need looking at)
West Bowling - folded at 16's
Wibsey - folding at 16's (not confirmed yet)
Clayton - no U16's team
Driglington - no U16's team
Victoria Rangers - no U16's team


Now you see why