Northumbria. Who beat Loughborough in the previous round if memory serves me right.

No. I suspect geography would restrict both of those from getting hold of many current or ex pro or academy players.

Current possibly but why wouldn't ex-academy or ex-pro players study there, particularly given Loughborough's status in terms of it's sports degrees etc?

Wether they would or wouldn't , teams of kids playing semi pro clubs doesn't work , yes they might get the odd decent result pre season , but from a development point of view and a safety point of view it shouldn't happen

didnt Wigan put 106 past Whitehaven? maybe semi-pro teams arent up to the required standard to play pro teams, maybe from a development and safety point of view it shouldnt happen?

Well it would be stupid to put them in a league situation yes , but in your analogy it was still men against men , just that one lot of men not being as fit as the others

nobody is asking them to be put in a league situation, similarly nobody is asking Uni teams to join the championships. I agree, in a league situation week in week out a Uni team and an U20 team would struggle with the physicality. In a one off game they wont.

Do you have any evidence or any examples of long term injuries being an issue when one off games between Uni sides and semi-pro sides are played?

The OP suggests exactly that they be put in a league situation , as for injuries , no , have you ?

and we agree that U20's would struggle with the physicality, especially in the forwards, which is one of the reasons we should look at feeder clubs rather than U20's with a mix between experienced and young players.


no, i dont which is why i dont think it is an issue.

All I can think of is that you're confusing Universities with Sixth form colleges.

I'm not confusing anything , and trying to do the Smokey tactic of ' water muddying ' wont work either

I agree that using feeder clubs would be a better system than sticking the under 20s into the league system. SL clubs could keep their youth systems in the form that they are now (otherwise they would need 3 or 4 feeder clubs each) and each could either set up a new club in a nearby town or link up with any pre existing club willing to act as a feeder club that would then be used to send the cream of their under 20s on either dual reg or season long loans. For example Wigan could set up a Chorley feeder club, somebody already mentioned a Goole club to feed one of the Hull clubs. If willing clubs like Bramley (with Leeds) or Warrington Wizards (with Wire) (just as examples, not insisting that they should) could link up as feeder clubs and join the leagues. This would then give us a greater number of clubs in the championships whilst not forcing ambitious clubs to act as feeders. By careful selection of towns for feeder clubs we could also use such a system to push out gradually from the M62 corridor both to the north and the south of the 'heartlands' and mean new clubs were still fairly local to their opponents helping to build local rivalry and interest.

iirc we've played warrington & huddersfield 'reserves' in pre season friendlies in recent years...and tanked em' both


just sayin

The issue you have with feeders from existing lower league clubs is that those clubs often have an dislike bordering on hatred for anything involving the "big" club in their area, usually from when the two clubs were rivals and on a similar footing some time in their history.

Trying to convince Hunslet for example that they might want to serve as Leeds feeder club is likely to be met with a two-word answer followed by an anti-semitic expletive.

I'd imagine similar reactions (without the expletive) asking Keighley to do the same with Bradford or Swinton with Salford.