Could this not be down to the fact they're both probably the biggest clubs on their side of the pennines therefore hoovering up a larger portion of the talent pool available

hardly, it's not like we cherry pick the best stars, 5 of the 6 picked from wigan are wigan lads

I think that this is a little unfair on some of these clubs.

In recent years Castleford have produced players like Westerman, Shenton, Arundel, Clark, Owen who are all good players.

Hull KR have players such as Taylor, Watts (kinda Castleford too), and Welham, who are all decent players.

Can't comment too much about Wakefield but I know that they've been doing well in the 9s competition (although I don't know if they've been fielding a lot of 1st teamers or whether it's been mainly academy).

London's brought through players like Clubb, Sarginson and Krasniqi. I think that London have bigger problems than their academy, tbh.

You can't say that Widnes are a club 'regularly finishing outside the top 8'. This is their 1st year in SL.





On another note, people should keep an eye on James Cunningham who has been named in the squad. He's a young hooker with a future that looks very promising.

If everybody produced as much talent as the top clubs then we would have a player pool in super league which would see us compete 'better' at international level IMO.

I simply won't take the 'top clubs get the best players' argument, because West Ham have a cracking academy in football but don't attract the best players. This is about facilities and the ethos the youngsters are brought up in.

The current Wigan academy train just like the first team with the same goals etc. that is the way it should work.

Imagine if each club had 6 players good enough to get into this squad...

Widnes have had 2 lads in Jack Owens and Tom
Gilmore in that group for the past few years. Gilmore had a torrid year with injuries but was back in the side last week and also made his SL debut against London.

No idea why Jack has somehow dropped out tbh.

We are also missing the simple point that only do many players can be selected! As I just said Widnes have 2 lads who just missed the cut and that could be the same for other sides.

Maybe they do have players 'good enough' just for whatever reason that bunch has been selected. Congratulations and Good luck to them too!

It is pretty much always the same with these team announcements though, they are often dominated by Wigan, Leeds and Saints etc. if the other teams were producing enough good players then surely you would see it even up by now.

It depends who picks the team

Just look at the current England squad and which academy the players came through (I may have made a couple of errors here but had a go) again not one player from Castleford, Wakefield, Widnes or Hull KR. No matter what there fans try and claim the facts are there to see, they produce virtually no international players, If every club put in the same effort as Leeds/Wigan we would have a far greater pool of quality players to pick from and stand a much better chance against Aus.

England: S Tomkins (Wigan); J Charnley (Wigan), C Ablett (Leeds), R Atkins (Bradford?), R Hall (Leeds); K Sinfield (Leeds), R Chase (NZ); E Crabtree (Huddersfield?), J Roby (St Helens), J Peacock (Bradford), G Hock (Wigan), D Tickle (Halifax), S O'Loughlin (Wigan)
Replacements: R Burrow (Leeds), G Carvell (Leeds), L Mossop (Wigan), J Jones-Buchanan (Leeds)

Gilmore played in the England Academy game at the weekend but missed the cut for whatever reason and Owens has had the combination of injuries and having to bulk up to play SL against him.

This year Widnes have given debuts to Anthony Mullaly,Alex Gerrard, Owens and Gilmore plus if you add Danny Craven and Flynn who were first team players in the championship I'd say Widnes have got a nice amount of home grown players that have played this year.

It isn't a case of teams not producing good enough players it's a case of the best players wanting to go to the teams that win trophies and therefore a kid prefering to go to Wire than Widnes because he knows which side are more likely to have sucess.

I can tell your welsh hull kr for the short time we have been in super league have finished in the top 8 a lot we have finished 4 -7 -7 and at the moment with still time for it to alter 7

Very short memory- Have you forgotten the salary cap breach £400k that saved you only a few short seasons ago.

The Broncos have something like 10 juniors playing in the first team regularly (OK so they are at the bottom of the league). The regular back line of Sargeson, Channing(Wales), Caro, Dixon, O'Callaghan(Ireland) are all from the youth development.

The 9's team that are playing next week in the finals are all kids

LMS & Clubb have both broken through into Eng squads.

It just takes time.

Could someone please post the fixtures on here?

Thanks in advance.