It's a good idea on the surface, but the problem is that many Under 20's aspire to be full time SL players whereas many NL1 players don't.

I think it would cause problems.

As for your attendance figures - I don't have the stats to hand but I can't remember the last time I was at a NL1 game and only 300 turned up? Usually for a team like Batley its about 800 - 1200. For teams like Fev/Fax and Widnes it's a lot more.

Time to shut semi pro RL up and walk away!!!

Why would they stop going to watch what in my opinion would be a superior product? And looking at the attendances from last week's league express you could argue they don't really go anyway in Championship 1. The average last weekend was about 400.

Surely Swinton v South Wales can't be more appealing that Swinton v Wigan Under 20s? Likewise for South Wales, playing Leeds Under 20s would inspire me more than playing Swinton!

Look at his leagues.
He is not on about Wigan U20's playing against Fev, Widnes, Batley etc. He mentions them playing the likes of Rochdale, Oldham Keighley etc.

Its predictable that the league one teams' fans would hate this, but when they actually started playing against teams with guenuine stars in them, returning from injury or young future stars, they would see how it could improve both comps and all the players. The U20's lads would gain alot from this, which could only help their progression and therefore eventually the england rl team

This is possibly the worst idea I have read on these boards since I joined just over a year ago and thats no mean feat when you consider Damo-Leeds posts stuff on here too.

I'm sorry but I think that this is a bad idea too. The reason why the under 20s competition is bad is because of the lack of quality coaching at that level. If it was good then this thread wouldn’t have even been created.

This thread is just another example of how to benefit certain super league clubs even further. The problem really lays in the fact that in the scheme of all this expansionist stuff, local teams that used to flourish years ago have become either defunct or neglected. Now I’m not criticising that all the expansion that has come our way during the super league era has been for the worse. We wouldn’t even have a super league if it wasn’t for the likes of Crusaders and Harlequins aka non heartland clubs. But this has been at the expense of the heartlands and this thread is the result.

Back in the day rugby league ruled Leeds. We had two other teams that we’re well attended back then and could compete like Hunslet and Leeds Parish. We need to make the heartlands stronger before we make the wider game stronger. With good investment in clubs that have fallen wayside, we should and could see them return to their former glory. Wouldn’t it be awesome to have two St Helens teams in super league? I hear that the derby between their top two teams back in the day were fantastic.

Hopefully what the OP has mentioned on this thread won’t happen. It’ll just make super league clubs stronger and national league clubs weaker.

Do you go to all your teams academy games ? , all of them , home and away ?

Exactly. In 2008ish we could have had Sam Tomkins and Kyle Eastmond playing at the likes of Swinton, Oldham and Rochdale on Sunday afternoons. Got to be better than what they watch currently?

And the question would have been , ' Who ? ' , if fans want to watch kids play RL they have plenty of options , but not playing against ' their ' club

SL fans cannot even be arced watching their teams play Championship clubs in the CC unless they get in for free , so what makes you think they'd watch their own reserves play Championship clubs ?

It certainly will be better than what they watch currently. But let’s say the NRL sent 5 under 21s teams over here to replace the worse five teams currently in super league. Who is really benefitting?