I’ve not seen a Wigan junior team as flaky in defence as that before. They didn’t look like they wanted to try and mix it with the Saints forwards at all. After years of dominance at that level, we currently look to be hitting a bit of a lull. I’m not close enough to it to know why that is. Are we getting outbid for the best juniors? One thing is for sure, if you want to base the club around producing your own players, you can’t afford to not be getting the cream of the crop from the local area.

In saying all that, results aren’t hugely important at that level, if you can bring through a couple of top quality young players every so often, rather than rafts of decent ones, you’re probably better off. Saints haven’t won anything like the amount of titles we have at academy level but in the past 6-8 years, they’ve produced more internationals than we have.

Cheers. I tried to DM you to get your thoughts on the Academy game then realised I couldn't find you.

The St Helens prop Noah Stephens is a beast, will be interesting to see his progress.

I've heard that too. I believe that last year against Wigan he completely changed the game in a 25 min spell.

As you say it will be interesting to see how he progresses. He could be another Sammy Kibula and look outstanding at this age and fall away or he could kick on.

Noah Stephens did well but to compare him with Sammy Kibula? There’s more heart in a tin of dog food than in Sammy Kibula.

Noah Stephens looked like he had a bit of mongrel in him.

That’s a bit harsh on Kibula but it seemed to come too easy for him in the junior ranks, he didn’t really have to put much in to steam roll opposition and he got a bit too focussed on becoming a play maker which to his credit he’s got great hands for a prop. I have always said this it’s sometimes a disadvantage to be so big at a young age, it’s obviously great at the time but having your growth spurt later is better imo, get you used to playing against bigger lads and having to use all your weight and strength so it’s not such a system shock when you start playing against men