Quote: Winslade's Offload "Our current U19's are having a very poor season and have won three, lost eight of their matches to date. But scratch below the surface and there is considerable cause for optimism. Their main problem is that they only have 6 third years, and even these seem to have been mostly brought in from other SL academies (1x Wigan, 2x Saints, 1x HKR) to make up the numbers. So Unsurprisingly, the U19's are struggling. Looking at the teams that they are putting on the field though they are regularly playing 6-7 first years (last years U16's) and this group have some talented players, in fact they have scored more tries than the other two age groups put together. They also had 5 players in the England Youth squad last year. JIMO, but I would certainly rate Liam Brinksman (centre), Cole Oakley (BR), Lewis Hall (centre), Riley Dean (SO), Jack Wright (loose) and of course Eribe Doro (prop).
Looking further down the pipeline it looks even rosier. Our current U16's have gone through their season unbeaten with wins over Wigan and Saints ( I think that is the first defeat in 2 years for Wigan). And they are not simply 'just' winning their games, they win in style. The ball moves through the hands in flowing movements, tackles are really well executed ( a la Daryl Clark style) and they are a very cohesive group that plays for each other. Last year we saw 10 U16's promoted to the U19's ( that's the most I can ever remember) , but this year I wouldn't be surprised to see 11 - virtually the entire age group. It's a bit unfair to pick the stand-outs, but again JIMO; George Roby (hook), Josh Thewliss (FB), Morgan Burgess (prop), Joseph Roper, Max Gilbert (BR), Sam Thackeray (centre), Connor Wrench (loose), Jo Roper (SH).
Fingers crossed, but we may at last be seeing a strong return from the Wire academy.'"
That's a very interesting post.
I've been lucky enough to watch every Scholarship match (bar London away this year) for the last two years and agree with most of what you say. You're slightly off about the Wigan defeat though. It was last year's victory over them that brought their two year unbeaten run to an end.
The under 19s will be much stronger in 2019 and I would be disappointed if they didn't challenge for the title in 2020.
Your list of U16s likely to sign wasn't far off the mark.
You've accidentally listed Joe Roper twice though, where I presume you meant to write Joe Barnes in as the SH.
Joe Kohe-Love (C / SO) and Alex Pendlebury (P) are the other two signed.
Joe Roper hasn't been signed and I don't think it's my place to go into detail as I've only heard the story third hand.
You'll have also now seen that a player has been signed from each of Leeds and Huddersfield and it's no coincidence I include these two items in the same paragraph. Warrington made approaches for most, if not all, of what might be regarded as the highest regarded players in the age group and there may well be one more from our friends up the A49. Although this might be regarded as a statement of intent and an indication of ambition, the club must be extremely careful not to alienate their own scholarship players, and families, in attempting to recruit from other clubs.
