More foreigners than Englishmen in the 17

Quote: SmokeyTA "tThe two things are inextricably linked. The lack of english players is evidence of the poor quality of the development. We get the development improved and the numbers will improve, the fact Hull KR and other clubs have so many overseas players is because they development isnt good enough. The development isnt good enough because when a club needs a player, rather than having good succession planning and having some decent quality youngsters in reserve, and rather than taking an 18 year old with potential and introducing him to first grade and giving him 3 or 4 years to reach that potential, or taking a 21 year old who may have been underrated elsewhere a club can go pick up a player like Blake Green or Kylie Lueluai and dont give the youngster time to reach his potential and dont try and polish a rough diamond and our league, and national team are poorer for it.

Until the clubs are forced to do this, they wont. That is why it is a bad thing to have so many overseas players, it simply highlights the fact your development systems and scouting systems are failling and your CEO isnt improving them.

For all the talk of needing time, the commitment would be visibile immediately.'"

If Hull KR today signed all the best 15/16 year old RL prospects in the country it would still be 3 or 4 years (longer for significant numbers) before we saw those prospects filtering through to the first team. This is the problem with your argument Smokey. You insist Rover's youth development isn't good enough, you don't know what they are doing now.

You might have more of a point to say that Rovers' youth development hasn't been good enough but that still disregards the problems faced by a newly promoted SL club which you completely fail to acknowledge. I think it's fair to say that Rovers are now on par with Hull FC in terms of youth development and attractiveness of the club to young prospects, evidenced by the relative success at under 18 level. But most of those lads will still require time to get to a standard where they can be blooded in SL.

If you could for one minute remove the bias and consider what Hull KR have done well since being promoted you would surely have to recognise that they have got the majority of things right and while there is plenty of work yet to do the youth development at the club is progressing. How many other clubs can claim to have made the great strides forward in every department that Hull KR has in the last five years?