I did consider typing "His/her [or even Her/his] avatar..." But was afraid that would see me accused of being just too PC. Can't win that one.

First time this year we have played a fullish 18s.

Often our 2 academy tourists + Farrell + one or two others play in the 20s. And Gorman, a very talented fullback, has been out for a while. Our best 17 are among the top 3 or 4 u18s in the comp.

Still, it wasn't a bad debut post from MFirm

Welcome aboard sir/madam

I am assuming from your post you see quite a lot of our U18 players Cripesginger. Do you really think there is genuine talent in there that will break through to the 1st Team and shine or are they just hard grafters.

Someone mentioned yesterday that the 6 in the 18's plays for Eng.

There wasn't to many standout players yesterday. Hudds dominated a large % of the game. We chased them back in the last 25 before Hudds scored and took the game away.

Lets not lose sight that Sargy, Dixon, Channing, Caro, Oscar, McMeakin (Still could be in the 18's) plus many others have all moved up in the last year or so.

Its the number 6 from the u16 that plays for England.

Who is he and does he look anything special? At that age i guess it must be difficult to say but i would be interested to hear Phill Jones' view on what we can expect from the current batch coming through. Does anyone not tag him in the bar for a chat? As this Academy thing is new to us down here we cant look back on a skillfull player who really made it big and say you knew he would make it an an early age.

His name is Joe Keyes, also Cameron Pierce-Paul (Junior Pauls son) plays for England too. Cameron played for the U15s at centre.

If you havent seen it before, here is Joe's try for England vs Wales: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Km47m7SIoI

If you havent seen it before, here is Joe's try for England vs Wales: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Km47m7SIoI

Good try. Has a good sidestep as well. Good luck to him.

No idea why you would make that assumption. have seen most of our 18s games + seen the U18 players who rarely turn out for our 18s. For example Johnson and Aspinall our 2 England academy tourists, Mason who just missed out on the tour and Farrell rarely play 18s but are very good players. I would expect at least 5 of the giants 18s to get a full time contract while a couple or 3 others should be able to have a crack at championship rugby.

Only seen LB 18s live once up at Odsal and they played well against a very good Bulls team.

Do lose sight of it. Players who are 19, 20 and 22 are not under 18s. Some of those guys do not qualify. Good young players yes, but not academy players.

Ginge you missed what I was trying to say. I was of the belief McMeakin is is still under 18. I'm aware the rest are over 18.

Your right Oscar Thomas & Mike McMeakin can both still play U18s. Because of the squad depth we have at this level they are never needed. It's shown, it's better for their development to play up at U20s.

i got it this time. You've produced plenty of good players + others with real potential. This success of LB is rarely acknowledged.