This thread reminded me of seeing the Leeds Academy select play Penrith juniors in November 2007. The Aussie lads were huge ! This was the telling factor in end result of the game.

An interesting aside - looking at the 20 man Leeds squad shows the attrition rate amongst young players. Only one still on the books at Headingley, a lad that has done OK for himself - called Ryan Hall.

I went to this. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Thought wigan did well in the first half but the Aussies brought on a few players and just ground them down. That folau look alike was a great player. Injuries didn't help the wigan cause though but those lads should be proud of themselves especially in the brawl!

regards

King james

Admission prices for the games at Leigh

Adults £5, concessions £3

Bargain

Get yourselves there.

Just to put the Wigan performance into perspective the score after 20 minutes at Headingley is Leeds 0 Aussies 22.

Does the fact it finished 24-38 make your post any more irrelevant?

But for two or three very weak players, Leeds could probably have won that tonight. Some outstanding players in that Aussie team, but not all of them.

No, Wigan finished the game with no subs available, they just got overpowered in the last quarter (quite understandably)
It'll be interesting to see the make of of the Aussie team on Saturday compared to the Wigan and Leeds games.

Well informed commentators making intelligent comments about the game... who'd of thought it was possible?! Are you watching sky?

Of course add Bilko and Joe to the list of intelligent rugby commentary too.

Ooh Rogues you just couldn't wait until full time could you before bigging up Wigans performance as opposed to trying to belittle the Rhinos after 20 minutes could you

The game actually lasts 80 minutes





Correct me if I'm incorrect Rogues but Australia will field 14 of their 21 named squad that played against Wigan, in Saturdays 1st test
Australia will field 13 of their 20 named man squad that played against the Rhinos, in Saturdays 1st test

Now that you have your evidence Rogues,Your point is what?
and were you again trying to have a dig at how much our academy is in terminal decline?

We also have 4 players selected in the England 17 man squad so that's not too bad a percentage is it?
How many Wigan players are in the 17?

Apologies for my pedantic post Rogues but sometimes your holier than thou posts are a bit tedious and often without foundation too....Obviously

I wasn't belittling the Leeds performance at all, just giving the Wigan lads the praise they deserved. As I have said previously Wigan finished the game with five players with broken bones (leg, ankle, shoulder, cheek and collarbone) plus one carried off with concussion. With twenty minutes to go they were leading 18 - 6 but simply ran out of numbers.

I haven't compared the teams for today, but I'll be at the game, if you're going come into the Park Hotel pre match and we'll have a chat.

What was the result this after noon.