Good post.

Not really. Its a pathetic attempt to undermine the positive developments that RL is experiencing in London.

Read it again and try and disagree with anything young Katie said.

Good luck.

Martin Offiah is an immediate name that comes to mind. Mark Calderwood, is another.

Im going to guess that several of the current Quins team was born in London, so thats Tony Clubb, Lamont Bryan, the Bolger Brothers, Olsi Krasniqi and i guess i could go on for a little while longer.

there will be others in Super League, but to be honest im not too up on where players were born.

The OP was highlighting that this year there will be 30 000 children playing in a competitive competition in London, the kind of foundations that will foster the London version of James Roby, Kyle Eastmond and Lomaskell (whoever that is).

You mean the young Katie that is you and Baz?

Hopefully, this might help get people in next week... www.thisislondon.co.uk/esrewards ... m-stoop.do

Hopefully, this might help get people in next week... www.thisislondon.co.uk/esrewards ... m-stoop.do

Lol @ anyone thinking "hundreds of thousands" of kids have been playing RL in London schools for "20+ years".

This is undoubtably "true" as they were being trained in Hull by HKR.

Havn't you been reading these forums?

The results are obvious to see in their first team

No. Not even close. There might be more than 100 teams in London though. A club might run several teams.

Tbh I thought the article rather over-egged the pudding (probably why John Drake referred to it as "controversial" in the editorial).

E.g.

Fact: Sky figures show that very many people in the south watch RL on Sky Sports
O'Hare's interpretation: All these people are southerners

Fact: Youth RL has a relatively high level of participation in the south
Glossed over truth: Most kids that do play RL, play a much shorter season than would be the norm in heartlands areas.

He did make some good points and tbf there has been a lot of good development at grassroots levels going in London but I think the article gave the impression that the talent conveyor belt in London is more developed than it really is. It is still early days.

Where are these 'James Robys" at Wakefield, Hull KR, Castleford, Salford, Warrington, Huddersfield and so on? If that's the only standard of player that you're allowed to bring through now, then there won't be many decent players coming through in future then.
At least we're actually developing players and playing them, many of your beloved 'traditionial' clubs don't give two s about development, except come licence time when they suddenly have such amazing development and plenty of talent coming through.

And if you think LMS is posh, then you're an idiot. Btw, internationals we had last year, were Clubb, O'Callaghan, Bryan and Krasniqi (Academy). We've also got three players named in the under 16s squad (two of them having "posh" names btw) and another three in the England Academy squad, so get your facts right before spouting rubbish.