Quote: The Publican "A young centre from Wigan made his debut in the Leigh 20's tonight by the name of John O Donnell & scored a hat-trick. Anyone know anything about him please Yes, An excellent young player who has fallen foul of the U20's changes. Last season I called him the quiet achiever in the Wigan U20 team. If you check last years U20's stats you will see that he was second behind Jack Murphy in the try scoring. wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/in ... ge_id=1670

Quote: The Publican "A young centre from Wigan made his debut in the Leigh 20's tonight by the name of John O Donnell & scored a hat-trick. Anyone know anything about him please Yes, An excellent young player who has fallen foul of the U20's changes. Last season I called him the quiet achiever in the Wigan U20 team. If you check last years U20's stats you will see that he was second behind Jack Murphy in the try scoring. wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/in ... ge_id=1670

Re Leeds and Hunslet it does indeed appear as though Leeds are trying to take some control over more of the game in Leeds.

I'm not sure at all about older players being loaned to Championship sides, but without even the U20s to run around in, how are players supposed to get match fit (especially as in some cases they won't have played an actual game for months)?

Having said that, if the Championship is used as a genuine feeder competition then the current worries may subside over time if its worked right. Here in Oz we have the Queensland Cup for example. Its a competitive league in its own right, and yet its studded with players from NRL sides (either returning from injury or simply trying to play their way back into selection contention). Qld Cup sides don't change 17 players every week - they may get one or two players in and out often but their core teams are pretty stable week-to-week. If say Leuluai (or any other first team SL player) was injured for one week or just not selected, I can't imagine the SL side would loan them out for match fitness due to the risk of injury - it would only be if they were out for some time.

In fact to use the examples of Leuluai and Moore, I expect they're being loaned for different reasons - Leulaui because its the start of the season and Leeds want him to get match fit as fast as possible before playing the Storm, and Moore becuase he's simply not likely to be picked very often. I can easily see Moore playing more regularly for Hunslet than Leeds unless we get injuries.

Leuluai has now been refused permission to play for Hunslet. At least the RFL are being consistent, but it smacks of poorly thought out amateurism.

Only because his visa doesn't allow it. A UK player of his level would still be able to go on loan to Hunslet as a DR player.