i have been a scholarship coach at Leigh for 6years now,
been some great times , along with some other players we have
developed some great players going on to super league clubs at the end
of u16s scholarship because we DON'T have an u18s acadamy team,
players like Tommy Makinson just signed a 1st team contract at saints
age18, Grant Gore, Danny Crompton, Alex Gerrard all now at widnes
age18 playing u18s & 21s acadamy & just got 2 or 3yr contracts, also
Alex Marsh at wigan playing u18s acadamy. Now to my point WE ARE
HAVING A SCHOLARSHIP but wont be able to play games at the end
of scholarship year, as we only be allowed 10players per scholar year,
these players will go onto regional/national trials. The scholarship players
will train once a week & at the end of u16s scholarship, they will go onto
sign a contract for Leigh Centurions, ( if a super league club, inc: widnes
do not come into sign them ).

Do you know what i think ,well as Widnes are entering the "elite" in 2012 so therefore can get a decent side for next season ,unless they wait for end of 2011 that is well either way i reckon they should not be able to enter NRC or play in the play offs ,in fact i reckon they should not receive any points at all next season as it won't matter if the finish bottom ,so thats what i think any road

My understanding is that this has nothing to do with our previous Academy problems

Talking to someone involved with Widnes Scholarship over the weekend and it seems that the RFL has two player pathways.

The first involve having a continual pathway through Scholarship 15 & 16, Academy Under 18, Under 20/Reserves and First team.

The second was that players not involved at scholarship would have a pathway through service area and regional progammes funded through the RFL

A meeting was held at the LSV some months ago and clubs had individual meeting to discuss which pathway they choose to follow. My informatant said at the involving Millward, Rowley and Eccleston the club choose to follow the second option.

Widnes already having an academy side choose to stay with option one, he also said that he understood Featherstone and Sheffield had chosen the academy route but was not 100% sure of this,

This seems to support what the Chairman has said and seems to be another case of lies coming out of the LSV and their contunual blaming of the RFL

Didn't we run an U15/16 this year?

Pretty sure we did.

yes we did I filmed all their home games, so we obviously were following option one as above