If Saints are signing 14 players from one Warrington club what state is junior rugby in within St Helens?

I don't think we're in any position to question clubs like Saints and Wigan when it comes to their youth development etc.

I know their are people on here who think Wire can do no wrong however given their recent record of producing and developing youngsters I'd trust Saints judgement on this one over ours.

Fact is, we have simply not been nowhere near good enough in producing youngsters. SP and KF have admitted this themselves in a recent fans forum. I don't think it's unfair at all to pose the question why we weren't interested in any of these lads from within our own town yet our two major rivals were.

Do you really believe Warrington weren't interested in any of them and never attempted to recruit them?

Warrington never offered any of them a contract. Saints and Wigan got in first. That's 100% true.

I'm sure they've already rung you to explain and apologise.

I've already said...
Our club is aware and the board wasn't happy about it.

However there isn't anything they can do now about it...so what's the point in them trying to expline it?

https://twitter.com/BarlaCups/status/11 ... 6551007232 Barla U14 National Cup Final Rylands Sharks U14s V Lock Lane (Cas) Midday KO @ Batley Bulldogs - Mount Pleasant Ground Get behind the lads !!! COME ON YOU SHARKS !!!!

https://twitter.com/BarlaCups/status/11 ... 6551007232 Barla U14 National Cup Final Rylands Sharks U14s V Lock Lane (Cas) Midday KO @ Batley Bulldogs - Mount Pleasant Ground Get behind the lads !!! COME ON YOU SHARKS !!!!

Well if Lock Lane win we better make sure we're there to sign up all 17 of em.

I imagine there will be a few hundred Warrington fans supporting Lock Lane after this thread.

And Bridge was from Oldham

You'd have a pretty decent team in the naughties if you put every Oldham lad together.

Just to provide some balance, it seems the Scholarship team that beat London 72-4 on Saturday included SEVEN players from Woolston Rovers Under 15’s. Looking forward to seeing how they develop compared with Rylands Under 14’s lads.

Spoke to one of the parents on social media who confirmed this is true. She said Warrington wasent interested. Very unusual. Thanks for you replies


This is no means me claiming saints are beating warrington to youth prospects its just a question as to why Warrrington arnt signing them.

Is there any kind of quota system going on? I.e can you only sign so many at a time? Or is it like football where you could sign 200 kids per age group like some of the Premier League academies do?

It’s interesting how as a town we are suddenly hot property for rugby talent. According to previous thread contributions (especially from other clubs’ fans) we aren’t a rugby town and don’t produce decent local talent.

If Saints and Wigan are trying to sign up whole teams from the area, what happened to their own local junior talent that was traditionally much higher quality? Maybe we’ve already signed it up and our local talent was their back up plan?

PS yes this post was intended to have a Sally C counterpoint feel to it