The first team 17 man squad contains Meadows, Lovell, Walters Davies and Hindmarsh, the high squad numbers certainly contain mainly London Products. How many London lads would be first choice for the matchday squad if they were in Superleague - well probably less than the five they have now.

Nobody I know crows about Cumbria nowadays, 90% is holiday and retirement homes, and the only "hotbed" is the west coast that gradually lost it's RL heritage since the heavy industries closed down many years ago. There is very little junior RL there. This results in very few Cumbrian Superleague players,

Leigh effectively have had "access to" a quality junior development system based on the two big rival amateur clubs, but the best lads have often signed straight to Superleague clubs - three of the biggest aren't far away. Certainly Broncos have the whole of south England to themselves to find players and have had that for 40 years........

Well in terms of top level RL players none, they used to have McCarthy Scarsbrook and Clubb and Kieron Dixon was a good 'un. Not bad for 40 years? I dunno exactly how many top professionals have come from the little old Leigh area this last 40 years but certainly more than the whole of the Midlands and south together.

Is the future then really Toronto, London, Perpignan, New York, Cardiff, Toulouse, Ottawa etc?

Pick out seven "useless small town M62 clubs" to step down from Superleague for these and close their foundations and academies that produce the only real RL talent the northern hemisphere has in any numbers along the M62. Lose the fans and lose the SKY deal.

What happens then? where do the players in numbers come from? Where do the investors even come from - I thought David Hughes was a London lad but apparently not. It's a sport for northern folk with Northern ways and a penchant for Hovis bread with their
dripping. It must break out of the Grimey old north and take on the world

There's a good few more names in this articlehttps://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/calls-to-create-south-of-england-representative-side/rl

Its quality we need, not quantity and the only reason London is full of local players is that there isnt enough money in the game for decent players to live, train and play in London

Just the people at the Rfl.
I think only Super League clubs can have them - and London and Newcastle have been allowed to keep theirs.
It ain't a level playing field...

again you show a lack of understanding of player development while I agree quality is needed, if only 100 turn up to try the game and only 5 succeed think what 1,000 could produce if you had the same percentage, yes 50 the more the merrier I'd say plus its spreading the game

He's right in fairness.. 100 could turn up and 100 would likely be bang average. Quality wise, the club aren't producing much at the moment in comparison to recent years. I suspect the club will fold within 3 years, they really are tanking on a downwards trajectory. Sad.

I don't dispute that but also a 100 could turn up and a 100 could be more than bang average as you put it, think of it being a pyramid the more involved the greater the player pool.
Players do find their level

What on earth are you on about? There is no quality in that London squad. It’s made up of local amateur players who already reside in London because no players from the north can afford to live in London on the wage that London pay.

What’s the average wage for a rugby league player? Whatever it is it’s not sustainable in London but is in Wakefield or Leigh.

Stop being so Arsey just because it was me that posted it.

obsessed

mate - I think there was a stat that said only one in 200 kids make it and most of those that don't tend not to go back to their Amateur clubs. Academies develop professionals but do great damage to the amateur game.

So the trick is find the quality kids and run an academy league with quality teams.

Not quantity, that destroys the amateurs...... Late developers like Jamie Peacock can still get picked up later

Good luck with that when teams are being suppressed from doing their own academy there's less player based

The player base comes from schools RL and junior RL at amateur clubs??

Sinfield came through this process over many years in both Oldham schools RL and Junior amateur club RL??????

Academies just then cherry pick the best when they get to around 16 ??????

Invest in education first.
English seems to be a forgotten language !